Many members of the administration came and spoke about their roles as well as answering student questions. The notes from each individual section are included below.

Lil Burroughs (she/her)

Facilitator Topics

BMC EMS service

Working on getting more students on board and active every weekend (especially weekends where we can expect parities)

Lil wishes that the EMS service was here all of the time because of the extensive training they have

Pem East-West party

Lil says that we can expect more campus safety officers to be available for the days that there are traditionally large parties like Halloween

Delia Landers ’19:

Are there any classroom spaces that can be open for quiet study?

Campus safety doesn’t know what would be available

Lil says they just lock the buildings that they are told to lock

How can we find out which classroom spaces could be available for student access?

Lil currently doesn’t have the information on how to find out which classroom spaces are available

Lil says that increasing the card access could give campus safety more time to do things other than watch buildings

Could we add antibacterial solutions to medical bags?

AED bags are changed regularly and Lil says that antibacterial solutions are usually nearby but adding them could easily happen

Leah ’18:

“If someone was seen breaking into a party is there a way to report that?

Lil says everything they get reported only goes to a handful of people and is relatively confidential

She suggests the Deans office (GAs) for reporting about parties if it’s a report after an event has happened

Can we report people who are from off campus so that we can prevent them from coming on campus? (non tri-co people)

Lil says we send emails about trespassers and if they come on campus we call the police

There must be a report about the circumstances for any action to occur

If it’s a safety issue (harassment/stalking) we will make a trespass letter

Quaker Bouncers

She is confused that servers don’t have to be 21

“What can we do to encourage people to stay sober at parties?”

She believes bouncing is almost not worth it because bouncers aren’t encouraged to stay sober other than for the reason that a bouncer is required for parties of certain sizes

Lil wants these type of bouncers but she says we need a strong group of students who want to be a strong sober presence and no group has established itself yet

Lil is open to help with bouncing at any party but she needs students to notify campus safety if this is an issue and she needs students who want to help

Do we have funds to encourage students to be bouncers?

Lil is willing to go to her boss to encourage students to be bouncers if it will help encourage students to be effective, sober bouncers

Olivia ’18:

What do we do about trespassers on campus?

Olivia was wondering if we had pictures of people to keep off of campus

Lil says we don’t have the authority to prevent people from coming back on campus which is why the police are notified if a person who has given a student trouble comes back on campus

Lil says instances where someone who has been labeled as a trespasser has come back are rare

Lil says that we can’t just give someone a warning or a trespass letter because a student says so; the person has to do something.

Lil says they can’t tell people to leave without reason because “its an open campus but also it is private property” so student reports are important

There have been a few instances of estranged parents of students coming on campus and campus safety can help protect students by keeping images of these people and helping students as soon as they have suspicion of someone coming to campus

KCass (she/her)

Group 1:

Thomas Hall Name Change:

started 2 years ago and people questioned the name of the building. Spring- group assigned to look into the name and history of the college and the building’s name. Over the summer, think about it because the situation didn’t really feel right.

At the moment: have not changed the name of the building but created a space. College declared that the values that Thomas held are not our values today.

At the moment: Temporary suspension of the name. KCass not urging any decision but is hearing from the working group and furthermore the board of trustees because it could have fiduciary issues. Need to work with board.

at the moment: Trying to establish a process to get a name

Alums are very mixed

some are supportive; some also understand its complicated and will take time to

some are angry

some are confused

time frame: should have name issues ready by mid semester next year. Depends on working group, if we need a couple of weeks then it’s important we take our time

Don’t have biologist at the moment who is best fit to teach the course. Also a very specific field in biology

why the Pensby center or multicultural center close to campus and not far away?

planning to knock down health center to build new health and wellness center. want mental and physical care

also space for overall student wellbeing & include possibly Pensby center in new building

put controllers office and other offices far away

reason they are there: donor wanted the spaces out there in that row

will take 2 years to build

raising money for it

still trying to figure out what exactly is in the building— student suggestions should go to Dean Walters

Park renovation project

phase I: done by fall. atrium with smart boards, new comp science lab, physics classrooms, and make it navigable.

crossroads area for building— Hub of the building.

center and libraries renovated.

more dramatic change

Dining Services

policy: not admitted without student IDs.

KCass apologized for not knowing anything about this

new faculty for biology and comp science departments

raising money for new faculty position in sciences. Waiting for proposals from science departments. Have raised money for position added but faculty decided where the new position will be.

Committee: Committee of academic priorities.

only one new position can be added due to cost and we already have sufficient student to faculty ratio

search for faculty next year

Dean Walters (she/her, they/them)

Hometown: Buffalo, NY

College: Marquette University, Milwaukee

Major: Religion, Poli Sci minor

Question: How did you find Bryn Mawr?

Answer: “I’m not sure how I find Bryn Mawr. I knew I was plucked. The stork came…I was at Smith before. I was really excited at Bryn Mawr’s position at the graduate school.”

-Intrigued by “joy” in dean job description

Question: What’s your favorite cheesy food?

Answer: “I think the most delicious thing I’ve had is a cheese souffle. But, I also like cheese grits.”

Question: How has your work of building and sustaining community, through hosting weekly Open Space conversations been? Are students utilizing the Lantern Talks?

Answer: There’s no class from noon to one at Smith. Struggle to find open, reserved time and space for all students to congregate here at Bryn Mawr due to lack of universal meeting time where all students are free.

-Lantern talk on building an open space: discussions about ability vs. disability, spirituality/faith, what it means to be an international student, spaces at talks in DVR in New Dorm.

-Lantern talk about extremism: invited historian, political scientist, & sociologist to give different narratives/perspectives, 15 students attended, Walters thought it was a positive start

-Working on marketing the lantern talks more

Question 2: Can the dean’s office work to support SGA’s efforts to build the campaign, if money is needed to cover the cost of sturdy boxes and shipping costs?

Answer: SGA should email deans to figure out a way to assist with the campaign

Q3: Question in relation to history working groups

A3: working group started last semester to inform students about the history of the campus (undocumented history of those who’ve contributed and memorializing them; telling the stories of those that have gone unheard; black @ bryn mawr; plaque for dining hall worker who has contributed to).

-A group that needs more structure: more students, trustees (found an alum), staff, faculty

Challenge: to find people who will be okay with receiving an outcome that is not expected

Q4: How has your work on building a community been?

A4: Created Open Space so that there can be an opportunity (every Wed. noon to 1, open to everyone)

when thinking about affinity groups for alumns, is there a way for those groups to directly donate to affinity groups on campus? B/c students can’t take undisclosed funds, but

The best way to advance the institution is to advance the institution as a whole and then having the affinity groups advocate for themselves within the institution—relying on outside donations is perhaps unsustainable, since they’re so often pretty small. (10, 50, etc).

I don’t choose what our fundraising priorities are, the CFO and Deans and Provosts do. 😕

There has been “talk” about doing specific fundraising for PoC – there’s an Alumnae of Color group (rather than Black Alumnae, Latinx Alumnae) and he thinks that having a fundraising mission behind it would be helpful.

The three leaders of the Alumnae of Color group are “really great folks and strong advocates”

Student response: it’s a struggle, esp. Since the ECC is trying to divest from he meal plan, but also … what happened to the Perry House- patterns of negligence over years and years.

The ECC is in a good physical position for support

“we could even do a small campaign so that anyone who gives from x date to x date could have a name on a plaque in the ECC, stuff like that”

Student response: okay but like… that money where would it go? Would it go to the student’s needs or?? I want to make sure that people don’t do senseless donating and that there’s transparency with where money goes—Bryn Mawr Campaign or anything.

A ‘programming fund’ within the ECC would help because it would have specific goals

Advocacy within the college is the most important thing to focus on from the student side, in his opinion

Session 2:

List of college’s priorities that’s more specific

The DefyExpectations campaign is by design fairly broad – funding the budget model for the college over the next 5 years : TriCo in the City initiative, paying for 360s, the digital humanities stuff, etc. As we raise more $$ we can fund more of it. 60 new scholarships, we funded LILAC with 15 million, endowed 4 faculty chairs (10 million).

Students – scholarships and internships

Facutly – research funds

Campus – park science and the new student life center

Bryn Mawr fund

What’s the exact process through which an alum could donate to specific program

If you want to designate your gift, you can do it, as LONG AS THERE IS A FUND THAT EXISTS – like the sociology department has a specific budget. The larger the $$ the more specific you can be. We don’t publish fund lists because that encourages people to pick and choose which goes against our policy of getting everything

If there is ever a thing you’d like to donate to, you can email development to find out if they have a fund

What’s the point of Give a Hoot Day?

That’s the day “tuition dollars stop paying for education here”, its about 80k for a full year and most students pay 30-60 k per year, so we’re constantly running at a deficit (loss).

Beyond that day we’re operating off of other funds.

Poorly marketed, if students think it’s the day we might be about to turn off the lights.

Reggie Jones (she/her)

Banter

Reggie: Thinks coming to big cheese is always a good opportunity to talk to students.

Milan: pursuing psych as a major.

Louis?: She just sat down here, but she is interested in asking about help for students struggling with academics.

Nanda: she wants to know more about how the health center will improve.

Questions

Aurora (they/them) is the newest counselor, how are they settling in? What do they bring to the health center?

Aurora started in september. Had a lot of experience working with people who have experienced trauma, is also fluent in Spanish. Also worked at the Attic (a drop in center for LGBT youth) and St. Christopher’s hospital and Congresso in north philadelphia. She is a staff counselor.

There used to be no-one at the counseling center worked there full time. Reggie was the first to be working there full time. The first full time counselor came in 2004 (it was Reggie). Second hire came in 2015, and the third in 2017. Now the center has 3 full time counselors and 3 part time counselors and 3 part time psychiatrists. The counselor to student ratio at BMC is the same as that in the rest of the country. Supplement extra demand with fellows and trainees.

At haverford they have students working as volunteer, why haven’t we done this?

It’s been talked about, but there are concerns about confidentiality. Haverford only has students in health centers. We could probably figure it out in our health centers.

Session 2

Anne Tran: met Reggie at a concert, just wanted to stop by to talk to her.

Sarika: here to hear about the counseling center.

Cole: questions about dogs

The Dog

Reggie’s fantasy is to have a dog in the counseling center. One of the challenges at BMC is that we do not have a policy where we can have animals in buildings. It’s really the institutions decision. Reggie brings her dog to work when we aren’t here.

The counseling and health centers are integrated, and HC’s opinion on the dog matters.

In the new building in 3-5 years, maybe we could have doggy day care.

Concerns: people being afraid of dogs. If there is an animal on campus, Deb Alder cannot be trusted to renew ESA permits. There are also concerns about allergens.

Reggie’s responses: Overwhelmingly students want the dogs, the ESA question is something she hasn’t thought about and will look into. Allergens are also a concern, especially since the health and counseling center will probably be in the same building for the next 5 years at least. This is a major reason why there will not be a dog in the health center any time soon.

Renovations:

Reggie: there are lots of things still undecided. This has been going on for 2 years now.

Why didn’t we send out a survey about the dog?

The conversation with the person who brought up the plenary proposal was very casual. Also BMC’s animal policy makes the question about the dog a moot point.

Are students able to express opinions on the building that will actually change things?

Yes, we have one student who has been consulted on desires for a new counseling center. It’s possible that more students will be allowed onto the committee if we keep pestering Reggie about it.

The groups

5 groups currently running devoted to connecting and relating, depression, anxiety, students impacted by natural disasters, healthy living group. How do we spread awareness?

A: worked in res life at a few other places, uva, oregon, columbia, life reasons to be interested in philly, specifically at swat or bmc, it was my interview was with 10 students that affected my decision to want to accept the job offer

Q:

Facilitator: —

Scope of stuff for questions : big pic:

Bias incident response team

Title 9

Q: can tell us how frequently the BIR form, existed for a little over two year sna at first it wasn’t used. And now people tell

About 8 to 10 reports. Some if how thats around how folx choose to report —- one of the

Me Dean Walt

Ray Albert

Sharon BergMier-

One of us reach out with folx

This ranges from “I dont like language on this website “ and then more often than not its about students trying to negotiate things coming up in classroom.

It kinda depends on the idea of the response

We are careful not to run away with info cause many folx are still in the class.

Some options we might throw out “would you be interested to talk to faculty, what knid of support would you need, we sometimes reach out to Provost office to see how often people have been in the role. What will be most effective

I’ve met with a faculty member

We talk thru strategic ways how the student could use if they’d like

We didn’t have much traffic before this year so we don’t know long term effects

Q: is this specifically for a certain type of bias?

A: It’s anything. It’s about something happening in the dining hall. It wasn’t necessarily about bias, but an outlet

Q: what about reports about health center?

A:is it worth it for me to put this in the system as like official for the college? But currently there are none in the official system.

Q: I don’t know if reporting the trans-insensitive comments of the health center is even worth it on the bias incident responding form?

A: so this form was created so that students need to wander around campus trying to tell someone. If there are other ways the student chooses to contact or bring up the issue,

Anonymity is important part of the form. …

Talking to Dean Walters is a part of this form

————————

Next session:

Q:i’ve been thinking of racism coming from professors and how to deal with that, cause its hard

A: we didn’t only talk about racism in the last session, so we have a bias-incident response team. It’s not meant to solve everything. It’s meant to give students a place to go if you dont already have an avenue to report things —- but also recognizing that the students reporting may still be enrolled in the course

Anonymous reports are hard, but if someone does include their contact information

If people include that, we invite folx to come in to have a conversation. Does the student want support or other people to intervene, or do we want this discussed after the grades are posted. Sometimes we look at the Department Chair for guidance, depends on the chair’s involvement

Q: I was curious about the bust of M Carey Thomas

A: taking longer than planned, so there’s been a time gap cause we have ties to alums. It’s the history working group working on this mainly (notetaker didn’t catch full answer)

Q: going back to the Bias Incident Response the only way to deal with “isms” in the class? What about course evals?

A: so Course Evaluations matter, but it may not have an effect for professors who already have tenure. If they aren’t tenure-track, the evals matter much more.

Q: Is there any discussion of the college creating a new diversity program?

A: I wish that the programs new designs didn’t get lost over summer. We have a diversity leadership group that meets once a month with KCass. They help keep the plan in mind. But the challenge is figuring out the model that would make sense. On the one hand I want this to be a part of everyone’s experience, but practically I’m worried about the closedness of some people if they attend a “required” event. So I think we are at a place of finding balance in this within hiring staff and also how that can be effecting

In this meeting Nanda talked about the current appointments round going on: apply and encourage others to as well! The Social Committee head, Mary, gave a recap of the Campus Center Halloween party. We discussed some potential questions to ask the administration at Big Cheese next week. Be sure to bring your questions for admin to the event next Sunday, November 5th at 7pm in the Campus Center!

Roll Call

General Announcements

Alisha Clark ‘18: Does anyone have any general announcements?

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: appointment rounds for fall have just opened; so there are a lot of positions, basically we have open positions for

Board of Trustees Rep

Conflict resolution Committee

Elections Committee

Film Series

Green Ambassador

Financial Aid Advisory Board

Plenary Committee

We need two Independent Major Reps

Two Seven sister Committee Reps

Institutional Memory Committee Members

S.TEAM Members

Traditions Committee

So if you feel like you know anyone who would fit those roles invite them to the fb page and encourage them to apply. The applications will close the 5th at 12am and then interviews will follow. This is a huge round so please invite people to the fb event. Promote it to underclassman who might not know what it is. And upperclassman who you think would be good in the roles.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Most of these roles are really good on your resume so if you start early that looks even better for your resume. People will be impressed by the time that you spend in these roles.

So I ordered cookies tonight in the spirit of Halloween so I am waiting for them to come

RepCo Check-ins

Mary Cooper ’20: There were the Halloween parties yesterday this one went well, it was pretty small. Most of the food was eaten it was really fun and low-key. And there are three spots on social committee so be sure to apply for them!

Big Cheese Forum Discussion

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: It will be happening next weekend on November 5th it’s the normal time 7pm and so admin will stay late and answer all of our questions, open to anyone.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Next week we have big cheese, which is our biannual event where students can talk to admin in small groups. It looks like we are going to have 8people. Make sure that you all come because it is the same as a normal meeting in terms of attendance. There is probably going to be about 50-60 people here like including all of us. It may be a little tight. We am going to get cheese from Wegmans to get some nice cheese, get fancy. It is a time to have a direct contact with the admin and have the things that you want to get changed. They don’t see what we see and so it is nice to have that time to talk with them. Cuts out the middle-man, which is me, and have a direct way to talk instead. But the way to get what you want is to not be defensive or rude, be nice to them to get what you want. I am also going to send them some draft questions. I sent everyone an email with the list of cheeses this morning. Make sure that you all say that you are going on Facebook. So then your friends will see it too and that will build up conversations around Big Cheese.

I invited

KCass

Dean Walters

Cheryl Horsney

Bob Miller

Lil Burroughs

Stephanie Nixon

Reggie Jones

And

Robert Dostal who just said today that he can’t come. Apparently Mary Osirum will be coming back in November.

I invited Denise from Housekeeping next, because she was the next highest voted.

Still waiting for some people to write back.

We are going to come up with some questions now? What are some things you have in mind? For KCass

Kylah Fanning ‘20: Renaming college hall, making sure that it gets done.

Alisha Clark ‘18: During my meeting with her on Wednesday KCass said she wouldn’t mind talking about that or about DACA.

Kylah Fanning ‘20: My question would be if there is going to be a committee and when that will be formed.

’20: Committee is meeting for the first time next week.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Cheryl does everything from financial aid to overall curriculums for classes. You can ask her many things. The questions can be really flexible but should be tailored to their jobs.

Chloe Liu ‘21: I don’t know if there is anyone on the list who could but I have had many freshmen that want someone to explain the breakdown of the gpa and grading scale at Bryn Mawr.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I am assuming that there are multiple people who could answer that question, I would ask Dean Walters

Chloe Liu ‘21: I had two people tell me that they were considering transferring because of the gap and so we told them to come to big cheese to talk to the people there.

Calla Carter ‘18: I think that for grading sharing stories would not be the best technique I think looking at a list of colleges who have our scale and a list who have another and show the differences. I think that data would be really helpful.

Alisha Clark ‘18: A lot of schools within our area, when we compare they don’t have the same grading system. So maybe bringing in something similar.

Calla Carter ‘18: I don’t want to diminish feelings but I just don’t think that it is that effective of an argument in this particular case.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: one more things. For groups and committees who have been trying to present things to the admin directly. This is the place where you would be able to do so, seeing their thoughts and asking for advice on next steps.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I will try and draft some questions and you can send me some

Una Giurgea ‘20: I had a friend who made a request for a Bryn Mawr radio station and she was approved for everything except for funding but she was denied because they would need a space for her.so I am trying to get her again

Also someone spoke to me about why we do not have a gender and sexuality department, and this semester we didn’t have any classes available that were not cross listed as something else.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I think that that would be Cheryl

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: I think that a lot of what you touched on was important. You can really bring out anything to talk about whether it be infrastructure, academic buildings, etc. I think that environmental studies is now becoming a major because it was presented in so many spaces. It may seem unimportant but if it is important for you then bring it up.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I think there should be a fund available to help our low-income students to pay for books and other expensive. I have been speaking to some alums who have been trying to create it, and its been denied because the only want alums to donate to the general fund.

Una Giurgea ‘20: I know bmc has a policy that you are not allowed to apply for financial aid after you have been here, so I just want to ask why that policy exists.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Just hype up big cheese, make sure that people know that we are going to have good cheese there and grape juice that we can pretend is wine

This meeting we mainly began to talk about Big Cheese which is coming up on November 5th. People shared recommendations for which admin should be invited to the event. Alisha also began a general report back on the information shared at the Board of Trustees meeting.

General Announcements

Alisha Clark ’18: Time for general announcements

Mary Cooper ’20: As you know there is the dry Halloween party in the Campus center while Radnor is going on, and I am hosting it if you want to work or have ideas for the party please email me mmcooper@brynmawr.edu

Alisha Clark ‘18: Does anyone know what they want to be for Halloween yet?

(People answer with possible costumes)

Lets Revisit

Alisha Clark ‘18: I really don’t like Roberts rules at all, I think it is silencing to certain people. I think it is awful if there are more than 20 people during Roberts rules. I did it for last rep co and they loved it. I don’t think that I have asked you, but do you want to do Roberts rules for these weekly meetings?

Sierra Bradshaw Kreimer ‘20: I still don’t understand Robert’s rules and so I feel like it would be nice to still just talk like people

Annika Cole ‘18: Clarifying question, would we be using the structure or language?

Alisha Clark ’18: Both, like for plenary structure is there and the language is gone. We could implement it easily here. We could learn and grow together.

Carolyn Cannizzaro ‘19: if we wanted to make this a microcosm for plenary we could we implement the structure without the language.

Calla Carter ‘18: I feel like Roberts rules is better for big groups than small groups because I feel like when we are a small group we are able to just talk.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Other comments or feelings or do you like the way things are now?

Yabundu Conteh ‘20: what exactly is Roberts rules?

Alisha Clark ‘18: It is a set of rules like tabling,

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: Things like be it resolved, whereas, stuff that would confuse people if they have not be exposed to it in general. We have shown the student support. If you have concerns you can email us.

Lizzy Muhammed ‘18: maybe we could try one with and one without because I feel like we do not know enough to make that decision right now.

Alisha Clark ‘18: it is with structure and voting. One thing we are talking about is big cheese one thing we can practice is trying to use big cheese

Big Cheese

(look at notes for this section about big cheese)

Alisha Clark ‘18: big cheese is another place to get things done, as well as plenary and just talking to me, because I have a lot of connections. Big cheese will be held November 5th at 7pm in the campus center, so we are going to have admin come. So if you have people you want to see, let us know. KCass is already coming. Does anyone have any names right now?

Jada Caesar ‘18: Who are we inviting, admin?

Alisha Clark ‘18: Yes admin

Jada Caesar ‘18: Dean Walters

Sierra Bradshaw-Kreimer ‘20: Reggie or whoever runs the health center

Sasha Rogelberg ‘19: Vanessa Christman

Jada Caesar ‘18: Stephanie Nixon

Alisha Clark ‘18: new Chief Enrollment Officer, Cheryl Horsney

Is there anyone on this campus who you see and you think, who is that person what do they actually do. Or anyone that you think that what they do is

Isabel Rose ‘18: Provost Osirium

Alisha Clark ’18: She is on sabbatical

Robbery Daustin is the interim provost

Lizzy Muhammad ‘18: Deb Alder

Natalie Kawam ‘19: Megan Pongratz

Alisha Clark ‘18: someone from the cpd maybe

Jada Caesar ‘18: chuck heyduck

Sierra Bradshaw Kreimer ‘20: Lillian burroughs

Alisha Clark ‘18: Denise from housekeeping

Jada Caesar ‘18: people from LITS, because we don’t really think about them or really interact with them.

Sasha Rogelberg ‘19: Christiana from Special Collections

Jada Caesar ‘18: Joanna Pintequeo, new geology prof

Phoebe Dopolus ’19: Angie sheets, cause I really like her

Alisha Clark ‘18: I really like her too

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: whoever is in charge of park renovations

Liv Phillips ‘19: can we also have Vianna if we also have Angie

Anna: Jennifer Prudencizo

Alisha Clark ‘18: If you think of someone please email that to me

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: we will also be creating a Facebook event so you can say there

Board of Trustees

Alisha Clark ‘18: the meeting went really well. They are having discussions about the diversity of the board and they are really trying to focus on showing up for themselves. Especially around fundraising. The Bryn Mawr fund is going really well. Next meeting I will give you the exact number, it is a lot of money. They want to stress donating, no amount is too small. She wants us to imagine the money as a pyramid. Our foundation is what tends to make up the entire pyramid. Our small donations really add up. If you have 5 dollars to spare give it to Bryn Mawr. Maybe we could invite someone from that there

Phoebe Dopulos ’19: Shannon Gotesman

Alisha Clark ‘18: this is money that we may not see but it is for future generations of bryn mawr

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: people who donate actually look at the senior gift participation to decide if they want to donate, which if they are not it is totally fair, but just keep this in mind

Alisha Clark ‘18: although Bryn Mawr is not perfect. I find my encounters with you all as worth it, this is one thing that I will always remember, I love learning something new from the student body. You teach me so much beyond what others could teach me,

Bringing it Home

Alisha Clark ‘18: it will end by Wednesday, we will be sending the things on Thursday, I am working on making this an official campaign that is sustainable and run though sga. There is no official transition when you are coming into this role.

After spring break I am going to launch a pay it forward campaign. I think we have community but I think it will be good to do little acts of kindness for one another. It will be something small but hopefully the whole campus can be a part

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: Applications for all committees are opening this Thursday and will be open all through fall break. I will be crating a Facebook group for the current members of committees. I will be meeting with committees individually after break to really be solidifying roles. So look out for the doodle poll for that. It wont be much, only one meal with me.

The beginning of the meeting was spent going over some basic news of events on campus. We broke up into small groups to discuss feelings and provide suggestions for Plenary. We were able to hear check-ins from a few positions on Rep-co. Then the Migrant Right’s Coalition lead an open forum on DACA where students were able to ask and answer questions pertaining to the recent policy changes.

General Announcements

Annika Lutzenhiser ’19: Story core is re-launching and so we are going to have a bunch of conversations with affinity groups on campus

Ill put something out in the daily digest

Alisha Clark ‘18: any other general announcements, birthdays, weddings?

Someone raises their hand to say it’s their birthday

Calla Carter ’18: sudo hoot has a logo challenge out and so if youre interested in graphic design or art or something submit them by nov 26th we have great prizes such as apple watches

Plenary Discussion

Alisha Clark ‘18: We are going into the plenary discussion.. We are modeling it the same as last time. So we will break up into 5 smaller groups and discuss.

Everyone breaks up and talks for 10 minutes

So I have heard everyone, even in the nastiest emails. I addressed the concerns and feelings in my conversation with KCass. And plenary itself was not the best thing for me, of course not. I have worked on it since summer but of course the first time is not going to be picture perfect. After plenary I am not sure how I felt about the app. Admin loved it because it was fast and because they are able to see the actual numbers. I am still on the fence about doing it again because there was about 25 people who were unable to vote. How would people feel about possibly having Plenary in the gym.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: please make sure that when you are giving criticisms that you are thinking about the feelings of the people who you are criticizing. Alisha is a fellow student who has other things to think of.

Community Forum

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: We are going to have a complete check in of committee roles and restructure them.

RepCo Check-ins

Michelle ’18 and Courtney ‘18: We are res co heads. The liaison people between res life and the dorm presidents, so we meet every week and talk about what is going on in the dorms. We also meet with Angie sheets regularly. Every Tuesday morning I meet with the heads of a lot of facilities and so if you have any concerns with those groups you can being them to me and I will bring them up in those meetings.

Sophie Goldstein ‘20: Elections head with Milan we deal with elections cycles during the year. We just had one very recently this past weekend. You guys get a lot of emails rom me throughout the year so please read them and nominate and vote.

DACA Open Forum

Alisha Clark ‘18: We are going to move into our DACA open forum. About a week before Plenary someone brought concerns to the meeting about SGA and DACA and so we decided to hold this open forum with the Migrant Rights Coalition. We have a brief video.

Alisha Clark ‘18: today for this event we are going to open up the floor to students. We are corunning this with the Migrant Right’s Coalition

Maria

Kayla

Rebeca

Leticia

Daniela Lopez Lopez ’19: we are all on the e board of the coalition

We want to emphasize that this is something that is effecting people here at BMC there are undocumented students at Bryn Mawr this is not just some abstract concept.

Kyla Fanning ’20: I have seen stuff about KCass signing on to things to protect their students, can they do that legally and how can we support as a student body.

Daniela Lopez Lopez ‘19: Her reasoning for not saying that we are a sanctuary campus was that she didn’t want to make Bryn Mawr a target that could put students in danger because ICE could come here. Something they are doing is not complying with ICE unless they have a warrant. The admin also does not keep tabs on who is and who is not undocumented here. Even if they asked we have no information to give. Working on programs to make sure that undocumented students do not feel any different than other students

Alisha Clark ‘18: even with my meeting they were saying that they really do not keep tabs on anyone. The college would ask questions back before proceeding with the warrant.

Daniela Lopez Lopez ‘19: quick plug. We actually created a support group through our club so if you are undocumented or protected under DACA there is a support group that we have just to talk about what you are feeling so if you want to email me I can give you more information about that dlopezlope@brynmawr.edu. I will tell you when and where this is meeting.

Rebeca Salas ‘19: Mine is not really just a plug for ways that we can act, but in the topic of immigration in general immigration is based on capitalism and we are a country based in capitalism. I want to hand out these pamphlets that we made to show ways to help. One of the biggest ones is boycotting stores that support the private prison complex, there are so many companies that are a part of this like victorias secret, starbucks, etc. We are going to go to a senators office with DACA recipients to help and change their mind.

Alisha Clark ‘18: in case some people are thinking what does a DACA student look like. Which is a horrible thought to think of. They are highly educated, they generally don’t have a criminal record, they are fairly young. The point is that they are all like us. You can’t use stereotypes or listen to Donald trump. They all pay taxes unlike someone else.

Daniela Lopez Lopez ‘19: when you ask who they are, they’re Americans. They were given this temporary deferment from deportation and then you can renew it again up and until it is in place. These are people who grew up here. Your neighbor could be on DACA.

Azalia Sprecher Hidalgo ’18: they can look like anyone, not all DACA recipients are Latinx. I think we should push back on the aspect of contributing to the economy. They are human beings, not just dollar signs. It is all just xenophobia. Fearing people because they are the stranger because they look different or are from somewhere different.

Rebeca Salas ’19: on my capitalistic rant, when they are being deported and held in detention centers that money is going to the shareholders, these large companies. We cant make it all about money, these are people.

Alisha Clark ‘18: we are gong to pause for a minute and show this video:

I want to stress the open forum so that people can learn form each other, I don’t want people saying something ignorant because people are hurting right now. If you are not upset, you are not listening.

Daniela Lopez Lopez ’19: does the community have any more questions, concerns

Lizzy Muhammad ‘18: I think it was Rebecca who was talking about incarceration as it relates to DACA.

Rebeca Salas ‘18: I am not an expert. I just kind of generalized it in terms of all migration.

Daniela: when ice arrests people they put them in detention centers and can hold them for weeks. There was a story about a DACA recipient who was held for 6 weeks because they did not have the proper documentation at the moment. In Philly in the last month ICE arrested 107 people.

Alisha Clark ‘18: If you want to talk more about private prisons America has a long history of imprisoning African Americans

Azalia Sprecher Hidalgo ‘18: so the way that these prisons and the government operate is that they hire private corporations and so they are getting paid. The soap. Food, blankets are all from outside companies and in turn they sponsor some political campaigns. To see how this is part of the private prison industry.

Kayla Patton ‘18: yeah everything is super connected I just wanted to add on that even if it is not privately run it still brings in over a million dollars of profit for berks county. So people may be inclined to have a detention center there, they rent out office space to ICA officers and that is how the profit is made.

So ICE arrived at the beginning of this week as part of an operation called “safe cities”. Philadelphia had the highest level of arrests. And it was an operation to arrest folks who were undocumented, who were committing crimes. They are targeting sanctuary cities. Way of masking the xenophobic ways that they have been operating. The crimes are things like loitering or smoking in front of buildings. They will continue as long as they have money for it.

Rebeca Salas ‘19: in the detention centers these people are being treated really inhumanely

Just to piggyback a lot of the crimes that they are committing are survival crimes.

Also pushing back on the idea of the ideal dreamer who maybe would not go to college route or who did not do that well in school, they may have different interests, they may not be just like us. Also a lot of the culpability is put on the parents and that is something that we need to reevaluate as well.

Daniela Lopez Lopez ‘19: here is even some pushback against being called dreamers because that criminalized the parents. So young people are being asked to not be called dreamers because their parents are the actual dreamers.

Leticia Robledo ’20: I just want to add. One thing we can do is to aid DACA and undocumented folks who were effected by the natural disasters and they are unable to access FEMA funds and so continue donating to the brining it home campaign.

Rebeca Salas ‘19: we made a venmo that you can donate to if you can not donate physical things.

Leticia Robledo ‘20: this is not just for Houston. It’s for Puerto Rico. Mexico, other Caribbean islands. Especially PR right not because they are not getting any governmental funds.

Alisha Clark ’18: so this was originally something that I began as a response to what happened in Houston, south Africa, and South Asia. It was anonymous and people we able to get a package of things that they would need. It is bringing it home because it is focused on Bryn Mawr. Because our community is diverse there is no disaster that is not hitting home. When people say bringing it home it is all about coming together.

Annika: when is the next meeting of the migrant right’s coalition

Rebeca Salas ’19: we do not have a date yet it will be the week before fall break. We will have a dinner and it will be more a community centered dinner to talk.

Kyla Fanning ’20: I wanted to say thank you for opening up the venom and where the money will be distributed, I am assuming it will be going to Bryn Mawr students but I wanted to make sure.

Alisha Clark ‘18: if people need things right now they are able to pick up some more things. But the items right now will be shipped

Kayla Patton ‘18: when you send money to folks in PR its not the most helpful because there is a limited amount of stores to shop from. We will be shipping things to a church or organization

We have another organization we are shipping with to Mexico and looking for a place to ship to in the us virgin islands.

We hope the venmo will be able to just cover the shipping costs and we can use to buy more supplies.,

Maria: to close you can follow us on Facebook., we will be having events throughout the year.

Plenary was held at 7pm on September 24th. There were two new aspects of Plenary added this year. We began the event with student performances show casing some of the amazing groups that are run through our SGA. We also used a new system of voting called voxvote that allowed us to vote online and therefore make the voting time much more efficient. The first five resolutions passed, including changing the SGA mission statement, making the SAAC position co-held, eliminating Robert’s rules of order, creating a new e-board position, and making the appointed committee heads part of the representative council. One resolution, regarding animals in the health center, was tabled. And one resolution ended being resolved independent of SGA.

Performances

Quorum was reached around 7:20

Discussion

Alisha Clark ‘18: Wow can we just give one more applause for all of the performers. Wow I think we are on schedule for being the fastest plenary. Did you guys get a chance to download Voxvote. This is going to be a very casual plenary. It is in lieu of our regular SGA meeting. If you have been to one of my meetings you know that I like too keep things informal so that things are able to keep moving. We want to get out of here fast so if you have a question about grammar or punctuation please email me sga@brynmawr.edu and cc the resolution writer about it. Do not use the mics for these questions.

*Opening the app and instructing others to do so *

The code is 12600. Do not share this with anyone outside of Plenary, please follow the honor code with this.

If you do not have the physical copy of the packet please use the one online this year we are trying to go green and not have as many packets. So we will be reading it but you can follow along with us.

Resolution 1:

Nanda will be presenting this resolution with me. This one has to do with SGA’s Mission.

Rewording the Mission of SGA | Presented by: SGA E-Board

Summary: The Constitution of Bryn Mawr’s Self Government Association is a living document that works to serve the needs of the Bryn Mawr undergraduate community. However at this time in order for the Self Government Association to serve this purpose and represent the community in its entirety, the mission of the Association as well as the many structural facets of representation and leadership must be updated.

Whereas Article I, Section I, Subsection A the mission of Bryn Mawr’s Self Government Association reads “The purpose of SGA shall be the governance of the undergraduate student body.”

Whereas the student body is not being currently represented wholly by the constitution or the association as it is now written.

Whereas the previous mission statement only encapsulated the most basic of function and did not consider inclusivity and continuous change

Whereas the voices of marginalized communities on campus have been historically and are currently silenced.

Whereas SGA is not being properly used to address the concerns and demands of students

Whereas SGA has the potential to be a representative voice for all students on campus in every of aspect of college life and this platform needs to be utilized fully in order to enact the change that students deem necessary

Be it resolved that Article I, Section I, Subsection A read “The purpose of SGA is to center the needs of the students and to uplift the voices of marginalized communities.”

Alisha Clark ’18: This is going to be the first time voting, get your apps open go to the link.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: Opening it up for discussion, we will wait one minute to see if anyone has comments and then we will open up the voting. Make sure that when you come up to the mic that you say your name and class year. We will have a minute for people to come up to the mics before we move to voting.

We are starting, you all have a minute to vote. The question should present on your screens.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: If it is not working on the app you need to close out and reopen it. Or you can go to the link.

Just a quick question as to weather we are having a test vote at all?

Nanda Bhushan ’19: No

Okay not enough people votes only 395 so we are going to do the vote again. We understand that everyone is getting the hang of it.

If you have questions please come up to the mic.

Ann ‘18: I just want to let you all know that most of the trouble that we are having with the app is because of the Wi-Fi not because we are technologically inept.

Una Girgua ‘20: We are all trying to get it to open on the app. You should all use the link, even on your phone it works better. Go to voxvote.com and use it from there.

Alisha Clark ‘18: It is registering that 645 users are connected. I need everyone to focus on voting if you I can make the time for each resolution is for 2 minutes and not for 1 minute. Just give me a second to fix that.

Hannah Zamore ’19: Historically we have been able to make sure that everyone is able to vote if they so choose, how can we do that with this app and with the 1 minute window?

Alisha Clark ‘18: Social Honor Code is run though this app. If you aren’t able to vote right now we are way over quorum and so it should enable enough people to vote. As long as we have 446 I am moving on. We have well over, we are doing great right now.

Those who are having app trouble please use the link.

‘20: Can you get rid of the timer is that a thing we can do?

Alisha Clark ‘18: No it would take to long so we are stopping at 2, 2 minutes that’s it

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: Basically the app restricts us from having no time at all, voting usually takes place within 2 minutes. Also to answer Hannah’s question we can refresh a question at any time. To ensure that people can vote.

Kate Hawthorne ’19: If you are having issues raise your hands so that the people in your section can come and help you.

‘19: Can you guys announce a 30 second left window.

Rachel Bruce ‘18: A few of my people got a message that it was the end of the event.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: that was just to make the changes it will come back.

Alisha Clark ‘18: It is the same number 12600 and I am going to start it now. You guys ready? Its starting, you guys have 2 minutes.

Nanda Bhushan ’19: Once again if the question is not appearing close the app or use the link.

Hannah Symonds ’19: for a lot of people the question is not coming up.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Exit out of the app and restart, or use the link.

30 seconds!

First resolution passes 87.8%

Nanda Bhushan ’19: Sorry to those for whom the app is not working I am sure it will get better as we trouble shoot this, continue to tell the volunteers in your section.

Summary: The nature of Robert’s Rules of Order does not allow for the student body to fully understand the amendments being proposed or the issues being discussed. The rhetoric of Robert’s Rules of Order is inaccessible and does not allow for fluid discourse and productive decision-making. This resolution allows room for each E-Board to decide on a procedure that works best for the student body.

Whereas Section 2 reads “The Assembly may adopt as its parliamentary authority the current edition of Robert’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised”.

Whereas the rhetoric of Robert’s Rules of Order is inaccessible and does not allow for fluid discourse and productive decision making

Whereas the nature of Robert’s Rules of Order does not allow for the student body to fully understand the amendments being proposed or the issues being discussed

Whereas the terminology used during Plenary and other SGA meetings is antiquated

Whereas Section IV, Section 3 Subsection D states “at the beginning of each semester the rep-co shall vote on an established meeting procedure to be followed for the duration of the executive board” creates a precedent for the meeting structure to be reviewed alongside the structure of Plenary

Be it resolved that Article II, Section 2 now read “The Assembly may adopt as its parliamentary authority the Social Honor Code”.

Alisha Clark ‘18: we are now opening it up for discussion

Swati Shastry ‘18: We have one-minute discussion.

Katie Billings ’19: I have a question what does it mean when you say you will use the social honor code. Because the social honor code is not a parliamentary code?

Swati Shastry ’18: Basically we are getting rid of Robert’s Rules of Order because people don’t know Roberts rules of order, so it makes it really difficult for people to understand what is going on in the meetings and other SGA events. So what we mean is that it is the things that come with the social honor code such as respect, listening, and communication are the basis. Replacing with respect for your peers. It isn’t a formal parliamentary order.

Katie: I just don’t understand how that translates to saying your name and other things like that, like timing and things. I just don’t understand.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: its confusing because even Roberts rules is so confusing like saying your name and class year that isn’t a part of it that is just something that we do at Bryn Mawr at social events. It is more formal wording such as saying whereas, decorum, motions or phrases like that. Juniors and seniors don’t have to be using this way of speaking that were used to, we can just speak normally. It will help this be a space with more of an open dialogue.

Carolyn Cannizarro ‘19: because the primary problem part seems to be the archaic language, is there a reason that we don’t just change the language while keeping the structure?

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: That is pretty much what we are doing. We are still having some of Roberts rules were not dismantling it completely but just doing away with some parts of it. You can still use it if you want for the resolutions or in other ways, but we are not enforcing it.

Katie Billings: If it is still an option why isn’t it in the Plenary packet this year?

Alisha Clark ’19: It is in the pdf format. It is a hyperlink.

Liv ’19: I am just wondering why we aren’t using it right now if the resolution had not been passed yet.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: I mean again, we did not think there was a necessity. We just wanted to make it more accessible.

Liv ’19: I just don’t know why the E-Board decided on it?

Alisha Clark ’18: The representative council decided on it.

Nanda Bhushan ’19:If you want to do a vote on using it right now we can, raise your hands if you are okay with not using Robert’s rules of order.

Hannah Symonds ‘19; My understanding is that it also has some things in it about time and how to extend time. If we are using the social honor code which says nothing about that structure for this how are we going to decide.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: that is a good question. We are going to keep certain times. Basically we can follow it but we don’t have to. If you want to extend time it will be up to the student body to decide the ways.

Caitlin Haskett ‘20: If we are still sticking with the time limits and basic structure why does it not say that in the packet, because I feel that this is vital information.

Nanda Bhushan ’19: We are going to be able to work on the ways that the resolutions will be implemented, so you can contact us and work on that editing, resolutions always change a little bit after they have been passed.

Charis Nandor ‘19: I am a little bit concerned about the way that this was being run, because as someone for whom the app did not work you directly said that you don’t care about the students for whom the app is not working that our votes don’t matter as long as there are enough people that vote. And I do not think that is really acceptable for the president of the self government association.

Alisha Clark ’18: So of course everyone’s voice here matters, but what I really need is a third of the student body to actually vote. I want all of you guys to come to the weekly meetings. Since I have been president I have been asking for that, I have been inviting people to the meetings every week. Whenever you guys send emails I answer them but what I am saying is for this to be productive and efficient time wise, I would like to keep to the schedule. And I want all of the resolutions to be passed, last plenary it didn’t work. And I care for all of the resolutions to be heard at least. You don’t have to say yes to them, you can say no.

Charis Nandor ’19: But we should have the ability to say no.

Alisha Clark ’18: Yeah you should.

Charis Nandor ’19: You did not as people if they were okay with using this rechnology.

Alisha Clark ’18: I actually did, I sent out emails and also at the SGA meetings we talked about it and voted on it. So I am sorry that you missed it but I actually did.

Nanda Bhushan ’19: If your device isn’t working we are really sorry and please tell the volunteers so that we are able to help you. But also your voice is important, please come to the meetings. We started voxvote there and it is much more efficient.

Azalia Sprecher Hidalgo ‘18: I support this resolution because, I am going to be honest throughout my entire time here I have never really understood the resolutions. Coming in freshman year I had no idea what whereas or motion to extend meant. I come from a low-income background, child of immigrants and I don’t know what Robert’s rules are. I do not understand it. For people like me I am the first person in my family to go to college maybe if someone had explained it before coming to Bryn Mawr, That would have been fine, but no one ever told me. I really want to be able to understand the resolutions or to write a resolution to know what SGA is actually doing. I wish I could go to more SGA meetings, I am not here to trash talk or amend, if this is making it more accessible than I am for this resolution.

Maureen McGrath ‘20: It seems like if we were to have this passed a lot of the decisions about procedure would be made kind of arbitrary. Like if people want to extend time for different amounts for things like that, if we don’t have something formal set up it can make some resolutions less fair than others.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: We try to present any change to the meetings and we will send out an email and so if you see our email and have an issue reach out. We want to have a time to talk about procedure and decide on it later, so that students are really able to give their input.

Haley Varnum ’19: First of all, awesome go you guys I think this is an awesome improvement. One of the good things about Roberts riles of order is that we can look up the exact rules. Can you guys have an updated section on the SGA website with these rules and update them as they change.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: Yes that is an awesome idea. We are actually creating a new more accessible website that also be a platform for student voice and that should be up for next semester and so and so we can include that in the new site.

Alisha Clark ‘18: are you guys ready to vote, it should work now that everyone knows how to do it. Make sure to ask your section counters if it does not.

Resolution passes 84.8%

Alisha Clark ‘18: Before the next presenters come up, you guys are doing great but I cannot really not condone snapping and clapping unless it is to be really upbeat about certain things. Plenary is a time just like SGA meetings for you to disagree and to agree and for us to work together but if you are doing it in an ugly way that can tear down people. And a lot of people have anxiety, I have anxiety, okay. We are here to support our peers to support SGA, we are here to lift eachother up, not to tear down.

Summary: Due to conflicts with athletics, extracurricular activities and other obligations may prevent the SAAC Representative from attending SGA meetings. Considering these conflicts, it may be more beneficial to make this representative position co-held.

Whereas, the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (here in after referred to as SAAC) Representative serves as a member of the Representative Council.

Whereas, the SAAC Representative position currently may only be held by one individual.

Whereas conflicts with athletics, extracurricular activities and other obligations may prevent the SAAC Representative from attending SGA meetings.

Be it resolved, that the SAAC Representative position be co-held by two members of the SAAC Executive Board.

Summary: Each committee appointed by the Appointments Committee has a head that has not always been held accountable for the role of their respective committee. They are an extremely important part of SGA and the committees are an important part of the community. This resolution will allow more committee involvement in each SGA meeting by appointing at least one member from each committee as head and a part of the Representative Council.

Whereas currently all representative council members are chosen by election.

Whereas each committee appointed by the Appointments Committee has a head that has not been held accountable for the role of their respective committee.

Whereas incorporating these heads into Rep-Co will allow for more dedication action of representing the multifaceted nature of the student body

Whereas there needs to be more transparency with the committees so that students can use them as resources and understand the purpose of each committee.

Whereas the involvement in SGA does not encompass a large number of standpoints that come from the many committees that facilitate student involvement

Whereas the Appointments Committee is comprised of elected members who are entrusted with appointing the most qualified candidates.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: This is for the head of each committee to be on rep council.

Delia Landers ‘19: We did this resolution because we were both on the appointments committee and they are extremely important to SGA, and represent all facets of this campus. Having representation on actual rep co that makes these decisions would help increase transparency in these matters.

Nanda Bhushan ’18: Any questions please come up to the mics.

Ellen Wright ’19: This is just a request to enunciate and speak up because not everyone in the balcony can hear.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I pulled up the long f y’all need me to focus on something let me know I pulled up the link.

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: There are some non-essential committees such as Film Series so can we have a meeting to see if some of these committees can be excluded from this resolution.

Delia Landers ‘19: Kind of the purpose of this is that none of these committees are unessential, they host events all the time and receive funding from SGA. We want every committee and therefore aspect of the community to be represented at meetings.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: Appointments round is coming up we have something called committee review where I will sit down with each committee to see what events they are planning what their mission is and how they want to use their funding.

Nikki, Sam, Ryan: Speaking for me, I agree that this resolution is important because we go through the process of choosing people and knowing that these people will be held responsible is good because we expect that people will go to meetings and be in the loop

Nikitha ’19: Committees get updated yearly and it’s good that we can increase this by coming to SGA meetings.

Alisha Clark ‘18: This is a really long resolution so it’s okay if y’all didn’t have time to read it, it’s

Julia Castner ‘18: I’m wondering for committees that are figured up like a board situation how does that work? Can we have more of a rotating schedule.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: Yes also one thing the e-board was discussing was rotating people from each affinity groups. Any member of the e-board can come to sga meetings on a rotating schedule. So we will already have that system set up.

Summary: There is no specific position for ensuring all students are being represented and all voices, specifically those of color, are being heard. The Alliance of Multicultural Organizations has not been incorporated into the governing operations. This creates a demand for a new role centered on being a liaison between the Pensby Center and Representative Council.

Whereas there are currently only five Executive Board positions, and there is no specific position for ensuring all students are being represented and all voices, specifically those of color, are being heard.

Whereas many communities have not been represented on this campus

Whereas the Alliance of Multicultural Organizations has not been incorporated into the governing operations

Whereas issues of equality and social justice have not been consistently considered in the SGA procedure

Whereas SGA as a historically white institution needs a fixed position that works with the rest of the E-Board to correct the inter-generational formation of ignorance

Be it resolved that Article IV, Section 3, Subsection 3, read

Chair of the Social Justice and Equity.

The Chair of the Social Justice and Equity Committee shall be held by only one person at any one time.

The Chair of the Social Justice and Equity Committee should serve as a liaison between the Pensby Center and the Representative Council.

One of the primary functions of the Chair of the Social Justice and Equity Committee is to vote in the Representative Council meetings and to participate in achieving Representative Council’s long and short-term goals.

In order to accurately represent the Pensby Center, the representative must spend at least one hour every two weeks in conversation with the full time and/or student staff of the Pensby Center.

In addition to this, the representative acts as a liaison between the Diversity and Leadership Group and the assembly

The Chair of the Social Justice and Equity Committee is responsible for guiding the Executive Board and the Representative Council towards wider goals of diversity and inclusion.

Every semester the Chair of the Social Justice and Equity Committee will briefly present on the various talks, panels, and discussion groups that they convened including topic, number of participants, and ideas on how to build on this work in the years to come.

Shrive ’19: Question about the position , can they also meet with at least once a semester with all of the AMO groups.

Alisha Clark ‘18: There is an AMO coordinator. So we didn’t want to overstep boundaries there. I really want this person to be a part of SGA.

Madhu ’21 I have a question with one person being appointed to represent issues of equality and social justice as pertaining to communities of color on this campus, there are so many different communities of color on the campus, how could one person represent all of the different needs and opinions.

Alisha Clark ‘18: There is not a perfect answer to that, I encourage you to write another resolution or something in the future. I am working to make sure that SGA shows up, this is only the beginning.

Alexis ‘20: I think that one way to address this is that they could have a committee of people that come from different communities of color.

Alisha Clark ‘18: there could be a way to check on all different people, in a committee session. Because that is something that I do, I check in with the different people on my committee, other members of the E-Board check in with their respective committees as well. So we can incorporate that.

Caitlin Haskett ‘20: I completely agree with this resolution. It is very essential. I am also aware that the AMO includes multiple organizations who are not people of color. Is this specifically for only affinity groups of students of color or all affinity groups.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Of course it includes all AMO groups but we are wording this specifically because historically it has been the people of color who are being excluded in SGA. So we are showing Bryn Mawr that we are not afraid to use language like that. If your group is registered under AMO that falls under this role.

Summary: This Resolution serves to gain student support for the Bryn Mawr College Counseling Center to provide access to emotional support animals, specifically dogs, during counseling sessions.

Whereas, it is important that the college prioritizes mental health of students.

Whereas, many students do not utilize counseling services on account of lack of perceived effectiveness.

Whereas, emotional support animals are found to make therapy processes more enjoyable and helpful.

Whereas, the head of counseling services is working to bring in therapy dogs because she believes it will be helpful.

Be it resolved, counseling services may provide a dog during counseling sessions in the counseling center.

Reggie Jones is the director of the Counseling Center and has been trying to get emotional support dogs during therapy sessions. I’m trying to show student support for it so that we can show it to the executives of the school to show that this is something we are trying to implement. This might set a precedent for dogs around campus.

Please line up for questions, pro, and cons.

E ‘18: Would this dog be there all of the time because there are students who are afraid of dogs and I wonder if dogs are being locked up in an office all day?

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: I hypothesize that people would talk with her personal clients and see if they are comfortable with dogs. Reggie might leave her dog at home if they are uncomfortable with dogs. It wouldn’t be running around the entire health center I’m also kind of afraid of dogs. It’s possible that they could be in a different session. I think Reggie as a dog owner would know how much time her dog could stay inside.

ET ’18 So it would be need-based request?

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: Oh yeah.

Marget ’20: I am personally not a dog person, but I am someone who finds therapy animals highly useful. Would there be an opportunity for other forms of animals such as an or a cat or a rabbit? Dog isn’t necessarily the best option but the benefit is definitely there

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: I’m definitely more of a cat person. But this resolution would show student support for having some kind of animal present in the counseling session. Then it could move forward to including other animals. There was a survey asking if people were comfortable with having an animal.

Kate Crotty ’19: I don’t really expect you to respond to this – access services is already an incredibly inaccessible place on campus and students have a lot of difficulty communicating their needs on campus especially regarding ESAs

My fear is that they won’t let people get their prescription for an ESA if there are dogs available in the counseling center.

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: That’s fair, I am access services coordination and we are meeting with Deb Alder at Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 and we will definitely bring this up, because that would be really unfair.

Anne Shrek ’18: I’m for this resolution but I’m concerned of allergies because some people are deadly allergic to some breeds of dogs or cats or whatnot. What steps are we taking to ensure safety for people who like dogs in their heart but don’t want them near their physical body.

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: Reggies dog is hypoallergenic. I don’t know a lot about allergies. I would probably email Reggie and if I could get people who use the CC and have allergies that would conflict with dogs. Maybe that room specifically could not be used by people who cant be in the same room as the dog.

Rachel Elderson’19: How will we make sure that people who have dog phobias will still have access to the CC? How will be make sure that the space is still safe for people with these phobias. Phobias are very different from fears. But someone who has a phobia should still be able to access the center.

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: I would say email Reggie and bring these concerns to her. If you have a concern you should probably talk to her.

Sophia Brown ’19: This is more of a commentary on how the counseling center is working. Dogs are actually standard at most schools now and they have a procedure for how to work with students who have allergies of phobias so they do not come into contact with the dogs. We are in process of restructuring the health center – there is a student wellness center in the works. If this passes – that is something that’s going to be in consideration when they start building that space.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I can confirm that that is true I will send an email out after my Board of Trustees meeting to let you know when I will be presenting about this at the SGA meeting– you’re right.

Elizabeth Tramontana ’18: This is all going to be on a volunteer basis. It’s important that the CC stay affordable and I hope this doesn’t change the cost of going to a counseling session.

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: Reggie is brining in her own dog – so there won’t be any price increase.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Pro mic

Lauren ’21: I really like dogs and animals and I’m someone who is a huge advocate for mental health issues. I know personally that animals calm me down, and studies have shown that that emotional support that help lower your heart rate and calm you down. This has been beneficial for people dealing with mental health issues. It would make me feel more open to me going to the health center and looking for hope because there will be something comforting there.

Alisha Clark ’18: We are already down to one minute left in the discussion time, so if you could keep your comments short.

Tobi ’18: I have a con. This would be Reggie’s dog that she would be bringing. it This would be an added burden on the full time staff. Should there be a time that she would not want to do this anymore especially. This would be unfair for Reggie and for students who have some to rely on that surface

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: I think Reggie should think about that on her own. She is the one who asked me to present this resolution.

‘20: I just feel like we are not being given enough information as answers to our questions. I just don’t know how appropriate it is to vote on a resolution that we are not being given enough information about.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I appreciate that comment, if you ever feel like you do not have enough info you can abstain if you don’t like it you can say no.

Sam Moran ‘19: I personally have allergies and with the current set up that place is an onus on students who do. I would move to have this vote put off until we have more information or until the health center gives more info on the changes.

Motion to table

Phoebe Dopulos ‘19: seconded

Alisha Clark ‘18: we are voting to table it. We are going to do it via the old method of voting because we do not have enough of the vox votes set up to do a table vote and then an actual vote if we need to. And I need a photo anyway.

The votes are yes, no, and abstain

The resolution has been tabled.

Plenary is over.

Hannah Smallwood ‘20: As some of you may know my resolution as to change the 6 single person bathrooms that still had non gender neutral language in the dorms.. As part of this I was in communication with Angie sheets and she ended up being in communication with facilities. The reason it is not coming to a vote is because she said that it is only about making it consistent with the other gender neutral bathroom signage and so we do not need to put it to a vote. It is being changed regardless!

Kayla Patton ‘18: We are part of the E-Board of the Migrant Right’s Coalition. Formed after the Migration and Borderlands 360 last semester, to continue the work and conversation about migrant rights. These issues are really close to our community hearts. Meeting Dalton 2 Wednesday at 9pm. Email kpatton or rsalas about joining.

Daniela Lopez Lopez ‘19: We will be hosting an open forum next Sunday at 7 in the campus center. We want to be aware that as we talk about DACA we want to recognize the way that it effects our community as well. We will be hosting a confidential safe space for students to come in if they are daca recipients or are undocumented. You can send me a direct email at dlopezlope@brynmawr.edu and that will be completely confidential. I will tell you directly where and when this meeting is happening.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: we know that the admin shows this as the only place for change but we want to let you know that this is not if you want to change something please come to us

Alisha Clark ‘18: send it to me and I will be able to bring it up with different administration or at the SGA meetings sga@brynmawr.edu

This SGA meeting was mostly spent discussing Plenary, which is next Sunday September 24th at 7pm in Goodhart. The elections heads announced that current nominations period for Elections is being extended until Wednesday at 7 to include the CPD representative. We are trying a new method of coting this year for Plenary. It is an app called Vox Vote and it is accessible from any device as long as it is connected to wifi. At the meeting we were able to test out the app and decided to proceed with using it for Plenary. The resolutions were all presented at this meeting, the full texts as well as summaries will be available online. Please look out for all emails pertaining to Plenary information in the upcoming week. 2018 won the trivia question so the dark blue and red teams are tied.

Roll call

General Announcements

Milan Fredrick ’20: Hello I am Milan one of the Co-Heads of Elections, we are going to be extending elections until Wednesday at 7 because we are adding CPD representative.

Lets Revisit

Alisha Clark ‘18: we are moving right into plenary. Last plenary was a mess. It is really important for all of you to spread the word about SGA and make it a more inclusive transparent space. I’m leaning on you guys to spread the word and encourage you to go. So you know this plenary hopefully will be better, there is a new e-board, we are going to have gifts, performances. Hopefully people will want to join us on the stage to dance and sing and stuff. I have high hopes for this year’s plenary.

Plenary Discussion

Alisha Clark ‘18: I found this really cool app over the summer I did extensive research and they use this for even bigger events so it should work smoothly. Quorum is 446 and so once we reach that we can use the app to vote for everything. We will be sending out many emails that include all of the information leading up to plenary so everyone will have the information on what will happen. The app works on all devices as long as you are on wifi.

Ellen Wright ’19: Is there a radius for the app because we want people to still show up for plenary?

Alisha Clark ‘18: This will all be on the honor code. When you come to plenary we will give the information about how to log in including the access code. I will be able to see some of the information on voting and so I will be able to tell if it is working. I hope people will keep the honor code seriously. I did a test last night and I couldn’t tell if a radius applied. It is a great app it shows graphs of the information. Takes time of how long it takes to vote so we don’t have to do that. People are also able to send some comments about grammar and things like that through the app so that it will save a lot of time. Okay we are going to test the system.

*Test of the App, everyone was able to use it and vote. We were able to see how it shows up on the admin computer as well, showing the distribution of votes*

Alisha Clark ‘18: How do you feel about it?

Abby Brewster ’18: Will the student body be able to see this graph on the main screen?

Alisha Clark ‘18: No but after Plenary we will send out the physical charts to everyone so that they can have the results.

Abby Brewster ‘18: So will we not know at plenary how the votes have been decided.

Alisha Clark ‘18: No I will announce right away and be able to say the percentages that every vote got.

Stephanie Montalvan ‘18: I think Abby was suggesting that you do show this during plenary so that everyone is able to see the graphs live.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Does everyone want to see them live?

*Everyone raises hands in agreement*

Julie Gonzales ‘19: Do each of them need to be entered before what do we do if something gets tabled or if we need to make a change to the resolution

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: tabling would happen after and so we would just disregard the voting.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I think that abstain, as an option would be enough.

Julie Gonzales ‘19: Is it possible to put another entry for tabling the resolution?

Delia Landers ‘19: Tabling has to be called and so if that was an option on the screen people might vote for it without it being suggested.

Alisha Clark ‘18: you can make comments with your vote so you can vote yes but also make a comment about grammar. We are trying to cut down as much time as possible and really have pertinent discussions.

Sasha Rogelberg ‘19: What about if a resolution is amended. Would you be able to refresh the screen so that people would be able to vote again?

Alisha Clark ‘18: Yes there is a refresh button. I hope that people will read them before plenary and read them after plenary

Hannah ’20: I think it would be a lot more confusing to have the whole resolution

Alisha Clark ‘18: Okay perfect. So how does it look on everyone’s phones and on the laptops?

*People affirm that it works well on both platforms*

Carolyn Cannizzaro ‘19: is this how we are going to be keeping track of quorum?

Alisha Clark ‘18: yes because it gives us info on how many people are voting and so everyone has to vote so that we know how many people are there. We want it to be upbeat and to keep it so we want the voting to not be a stressor. We are going to be having people tabling and be giving out leis when people first come in.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: if you know of any clubs or organizations who would want to table please have them reach out to us so that we are able to have them table. People usually sell things.

Alisha Clark ‘19: This is just a test and so we are going to do some more research, because we want to make sure that it works and there are no glitches. I am a little concerned about the accessibility, but people should be able to rent devices from the library if they don’t have a computer or phone that would support it.

Lourdes: Alvarez ’18: You can pick multiple answers, will that be available during Plenary?

Alisha Clark ‘18: That is because it is just the preview and so that is why it doesn’t have everything. When it goes on live everyone will only get an option to vote once. Do you all like the idea?

*people agree*

Olivia Porte ‘18: How much time do people get to vote?

Alisha Clark ‘18: The app gives us a lot of options and so we can figure that out together.

Here you can see all of the comments. That is the one thing I am nervous about showing to everyone. How much time do you think that people should have to vote?

*People yell out suggestions, most people agree minute. *

Alisha Clark ‘18: Hopefully plenary wont take that much time because we are doing this faster method of voting.

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: My resolution is that Reggie has a hypoallergenic dog who she was wanting to get to come to counseling sessions. My resolution is just to see if there is support from the student body. Any questions?

Mary Cooper ‘20: If there is a lot of support would there be options to expand it to more dogs in the counseling center?

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: I think that would be maybe another plenary resolution or seeming that Is up for discussion

Ellen Wright ‘18: my only question would be what would happen if someone was afraid of dogs?

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: So I think that is something that I would discuss. I think that they would discuss before hand if people want the dog to be in the session.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I will keep the same language for the packets but when people are presenting it is up to them whether or not they want to use that language. I have been reaching out to resolution writers to figure out how they want to present them.

Our current e board also had a lot of resolutions that were tabled:

The mission of SGA including the wording of serving marginalized communities. A lot of BMC today is a very diverse campus in every aspect and so including this part is very important.

Our second is changing Roberts Rules of Order. I brought up last meeting how I thought it was inaccessible. Changing it to make sure that everyone feels like they are able to talk and access what is going on.

We want to expand our e board to include a new position that is the chair of social justice and equity. We need to continue to support students and this role would make SGA more inclusive and supportive

Have all appointments committee heads as a part of repco. Helps to define the roles of the committees and make them accountable.

Paid SGA positions for students on work-study, we worked on this with Haverford’s SGA who passed this resolution last semester. The position is a burden for people who need to think about finances. This will open it up to people who would not be able to take the positions before

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: I am wondering where the money would come from?

Anna Huang ‘19: We are still talking to Haverford. And talking to financial aid and student activities and so it will be more possible to get money just from the school. Not from the budget and if this passes we will try as best we can to get all the money from the school

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: we previous had it

Rachel Bruce ‘18: would it be federal or community based work-study because I know that some international students do not qualify.

Alisha Clark ‘18: when we really talk to financial aid we will figure that out. I will talk to them and work to make it more inclusive.

Abby Brewster ‘18: could this resolution be framed as a work-study job that you can have on campus. Making a differentiation making it just another position on campus that is part of work-study.

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: I am thinking about this one question from last year. How would we make sure that this (being paid) would not make the people on the e-board responsible to the admin instead of the students? How would you answer that?

Alisha Clark ‘18: Well, you voted for us because you thought that we would do a good job, so if you don’t like something that SGA is doing you can impeach really it is up you to change it. Make sure to keep the people accountable. When I became president I did not just stay to these rules that were set out, I do more. And so vote for someone who you want who will go above and beyond. Y’all don’t have to settle for less.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: Also we need to show how plenary is not the only option for change on this campus, students voices should be heard regardless of a scheduled event.

Stephanie Montalvan ‘18: So the summary of the SAAC resolution is really to make it a co-held position.

Sophia Bokhari ‘20: Before I came to this meeting I was talking to a friend and we were wondering how we are going to get to plenary and keep plenary this semester?

Alisha Clark ‘18: We are doing online campaigns and we are putting up posters and starting tomorrow we will begin the online voting to make sure that people are voting on the resolutions that will be an official part of plenary.

Nanda Bhushan ’18: There will also be posters around campus with brief summaries of the resloutions.

Jada Caesar ‘20: In terms of co-held positions do both people have to come every week?

Delia Landers ’19: In terms of attendance policies no, there only needs to be one person there. However it is nice to see everyone here if they are able to come.

Alisha Clark ’18: the dining halls will close early and

Hannah Small ‘20: My resolution is that there are 6 single stall bathrooms in the dorms that have gendered signs and we can’t change the multi use bathrooms becaubut we can do it for the single use bathrooms. It is a way to make a comfortable space for gender-queer martyrs.

Sierra Bradshaw ‘20: I wonder in the past if there have been questions about customs people being paid

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: I think that this is less of an issue for SGA this would need to be presented as its own resolution and there would need to be outside research done.

This was a great first meeting back. Everyone was able to introduce themselves and talk about their hopes and expectations for the upcoming year. We went over how SGA is really structured. The First Appointments round is coming up and will begin September 26. The September Elections are beginning this week. The Student Finance Committee is currently finishing the budget for all SGA funded clubs. We talked about some of the changes coming to plenary. Plenary is September 24th at 7pm! We had a quick recap of Parade Night. We recapped some of the recent events including the renaming of College Hall and the Bringing it Home drive for student effected by floods. As well as beginning a conversation about action we can take for DACA.

Introductions:

Everyone went around and introduced themselves with their class year, pronouns, role in SGA, and what they are excited for in the upcoming year. (You can find info on all the Representative Council on the SGA website)

How SGA is structured:

Nanda Bhushan ‘19:

Just want to show the way its E-Board

Rep Co

Committees

Clubs

Affinity Groups

These are all different branches and no one has more authority than another

Expectations for SGA:

Alisha Clark ‘18: this is for people who would like to speak, not everyone has to. I want to affirm that everyone is a member of SGA and so encourages others to come to the meetings and to talk to me and the other members of the E-board because we are your peers. You can talk to us. My position doesn’t separate me from any of you. When I say expectations this is not just for the E-Board this is for all of us. Anyone?

Annika Cole ’18: Respect

Caitlin 2020: A space for conversations and we will all hold ourselves and each other accountable

Mary Cooper ‘19: open lines of conversation

2021: that what we do has an open impact on the community

Sierra 2020:difficault conversations

Una Girgua ’20: efficiency with effectiveness

Abby Brewster ‘18: Not attacking the person, attacking the idea. Not making it a space like SGA will make the other members feel that they are members

Alisha Clark ‘18: I expect all of us to encourage other members of the community to come to SGA events. Especially if you hear them saying that they don’t like SGA because of something that happened a few years ago that they should come back and give it a second chance.

General Announcements:

Alisha Clark ‘18: Time for Rep-co to announce anything important.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: The appointments round will open up on September 26 and elected positions will be beginning to accept nominations this week.

Anna Huang ‘19: we are doing budget applications and the interviews will be next-next week and the budget will be released on Sept 25, because of plenary we can’t vote in person so we will do a vote via Google forms around the 23rd so look out for that and be sure to vote.

Plenary:

Alisha Clark ‘18: Speaking of plenary I think that this year is going to be great. We are going to get rid of Roberts rules and we are going to not going to waste time on repeated questions or on grammar related issues, we can have people email about sentence structure if they have a way that they would like it changed. Hopefully this will save a lot of time during plenary.

Caitlin Haskett ‘20: I think getting rid of it (Roberts Rules) is a good idea, I’m just wondering if we are going to have a new structure for the ways that we are going to structure things during plenary.

Olivia Porte ‘18: What are Roberts rules of order?

Alisha Clark ‘19: Who is Robert? Who knows what it is? Many adults don’t even know. We are going to change especially the language used because so many people don’t know how to properly present it. And if people are just criticizing the way that we are talking instead of actually focusing on what they are saying. I made a slide show that talks about plenary, what we need, what we do, what you see. And so I’m going to attach this to the minutes and so the first years and upperclassmen can learn about or learn more about plenary

(see below)

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: It (Plenary) has been really inefficient and outdated. We are also trying to change the voting making it more streamlined. With follow through we will have someone who will check in and make sure that the resolutions that are passed are going to be actualized.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Also we are going to change the way that people lead up to plenary. Looking at the resolutions in a more productive way and have a way to vote that’s more efficient. I am looking into using an app to vote.

Hannah Symonds ‘19: what if we don’t have a phone that would support something like that?

Alisha Clark ‘18: I think that this reaches out to other devices

Dana Gold ‘18: Does it work on computers?

Lyncy Nyandoche ‘21: Can you email us the link or the name of the app?

Alisha Clark ‘18: We can do a trial of it next week. I think that it only works if everyone is in the same room. I want everyone to want to be there so we will be making it fun

We have plenary resolution writing workshops that you can come to this week.

Alisha Clark ‘18: There has been a lot of buzz surrounding college hall, formerly known as Thomas. And it was interesting to see the schools response right after Charlottesville and then after I started the petition online to change the name, which received a lot of support.

Una Girgua ‘20: I think it is very important for the school to acknowledge all of the students who did this, you (Alisha) and Maeve and Precious and their names are not known by most of the school and BMC is taking all of the credit for making the change.

Phoebe Dopulos ‘19: 2 years ago Yale decided to rename Calhoun college, He was the Vice President of the United States and a secessionist and it took until 2015 for them to do it and that was because of the students but Yale took the credit and Bryn Mawr doing the same thing. But there was a lot of resistance from alums and I think that is important for the current student body to show that it was us who was that voice who made the change and that we need to take responsibility in a good way.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I was furious when I read the first email it was such a generic Kcass email. Especially cause it was her first year when the confederate flag incident happened and this was her chance to make up for it. And then the email four days later was obviously not their words.

Media has been reaching out to me, and students from Yale and Brown did as well talking about the process in getting things changed and dealing with the admin.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: I think that this can be a way to have future conversations about the ways that we can change Bryn Mawr from being the space made for white women to being a space for us now and so what student way

Alisha Clark ‘18: I put that all aside though because of all of the natural disasters. I created a drive called Bringing It Home. I decided to do it because I have so many friends here from Houston. I felt bad after that I only thought of it because of something that hit close to home. I think that we should always have drives like this so that we can be more preemptive. I thought it was effective and I want to keep it going. Is everyone okay with that?

*People respond in agreement*

Parade Night:

Alisha Clark ‘18: How was parade night? Traditions come from SGA

Leah Baker ‘19: So there was a false start at the very beginning we had the runners at the front joggers in the middle and walkers in the back and as soon as we said that the runners took off and we were concerned because of the road and everything. So we had to get them all back again.

Una Girgua ‘20: I want to ask if BMC or SGA has any plans to express complete support of all students who may be affected by DACA.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Yeah so like Donald trump… I just watched a video about this and I do know students who have DACA and I understand but it’s so complicated so we are trying to figure out what the best way is to handle it. Its hard because with something like the disasters there are concrete things to do but with this is it is hard to know what the best thing to do is.

Lydia Sanchez ‘18: I’m sure that since Philly is such a big city I’m sure that there are legal resources that we can find for students in need.

Alisha Clark ’18: I work for Philly VIP

Carolyn Cannizzaro ‘19: I know that the ACLU takes a lot of volunteers and so we can see if people need students to come and volunteer.

Calla Carter ‘18: What can people individually do: I found out about a service called resist spot that automatically faxes or mails what you text to your local congressperson whatever you text the number for free.

Manroocha Singh ‘18: This isn’t really about something we can do in the city. When we are advocating for DACA we should be cautious about the language we use. Not criminalizing the parents in the conversation.

Alisha Clark ‘18: It is much different that dealing with Houston

Sierra Bradshaw-Kreimer ’20: There is a migrant’s rights coalition and so we should collaborate.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I’ll send the text through email, I don’t want to be insensitive to these issues and they can’t be grouped together. I want to give everything my all. This is something that we need to do and it would call for help from admin, but we are going to think of what we can do as students.

Trivia:

What does “Jawn” Mean?

Answer: Anything really. It’s a general noun used to describe things that you can’t find the word for at the moment.

During this meeting there were a few special discussions as well as important announcements. I wanted to start off this summary by reminding people that there will not be an SGA meeting this upcoming Sunday! Remember to keep up to date with Room Draw events. There are two dance concerts this weekend, R&M on Friday at Swarthmore and the student dance concert on Saturday in Goodhart. There is going to be a 3 v 3 basketball tournament hosted by BMC Basketball. We will be having an SGA Rally in lieu of the last SGA meeting at which we will celebrate Bryn Mawr school spirit and highlight the efforts of the Representative Council. The E-Board will be holding forums for Seniors to discuss their feelings on SGA and what they would like to be changed, more details to come. We are still working on what updates we want from Admin in regards to virtual Big Cheese. There was a discussion on Athletics in the Community to close out Division III week, SAAC talked about new things they have been working on to make Athletics more active in the community. Please see the notes on the discussion to see the ideas proposed to work towards creating a better athletic department after the confederate flag incident. Finally the purple team won the trivia questions.

Roll Call

Rep-co announcement

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: Appointment election, nominations open on Monday, Sophie and Milan are running this round, props to them. Alsoapplication for appointments which will be due by the 17th so please tell your friends to apply if you think they will be good for any of the committees.

General Announcement

Jessica Breet ‘18 :Dorm draw is coming up. If you have any questions feel free to ask your dorm president or me.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Fun studd is coming up like the RNM showcase on the 14th

Jessica Breet ‘18: Spring dance concert on 21st & 22nd in Goodhart, and it is free for students.

Kyra Sygal ‘17: Just to reiterate RNM is a Tri-Co Dance Group that focuses on dances of the African diaspora, show 8pm LPAC, there is a shuttle that will come around 6:20, info will be on the Facebook page

Alisha Clark ‘18: Also Financial Aid is due soon, so make sure to do that so you can be here next year.

Pep Rally Proposal Discussion

Alisha Clark ‘18: I was going to rename this SGA rally but I think that pep rally works

Taylor: a pep rally is to gather school spirit, good here at bryn mawr where school spirit not particularly abundant all year round. Shouting & being happy about sports teamns and other events that are happening around school. Do you guys think that is a good idea or a bad idea?

Eda Tse ‘19: Since it is normally a sports team thing would we be rallying around a specific team? ? What would we rally around?

Alisha Clark ‘18: I really want this to be a time to highlight rep-co, we would be held here, the last meeting of the year, so next meeting we will be having this as meeting instead, we will be having cupcakes. Having things decorated and fun. Discussing things that we want to do for next year too

Sam Heyrich ‘17: I know you want to do an SGA sponsered event but if you want to do any event related to athletics, feel free to send me an email.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Having the sports team would be great because we are having a conversation

Jessica Breet ‘18: What if we get pivotal clubs on campus to do some I love BMC propeganda? I love bryn mawr propaganda?

Alisha Clark ‘18: Yeah that’s a great idea, I wanted to make sure that the rep-co is highlighted but I still want it open, like if people want to perform they can.

Cassidy Gruber ‘19: Just to clarify this is a party for everyone but we are highlighting repco?

Alisha Clark ‘18 : anybody is welcome to our meetings. If you see people around the campus having SGA related conversations, tell them to to come to our meetings, because Alisha is president so of course she’s gonna let u speak.

Will we have cupcakes for everyone? No, probably not. Don’t advertise food to your friends. People can probably get pizza though.

Taylor: There will be water!!

Claire Gaposchkin‘17: I am just wondering about the name because we’ve been switching back and forth between SGA Rally & Pep Rally.

Alisha Clark ‘18: We will be calling it a SGA Rally.

Kyra Sygal ‘17: Would this be a one time thing this year?

Alisha Clark ‘18: Like taylor was saying there a loss of school spirit, I want to work on getting everyone hyped up, having fun is my plan, plenary is going to be party itself. Making Plenary somewhere that people want to go. Do you guys want to do this?

People vote to have the SGA rally.

Let’s Revist

Nanda Bhushan ‘19:N An idea the E-Board has been having is to hold a senior SGA forum to ask what people want to see based on their four years, when do you think would be the best time to hold this?

Alisha Clark ‘18: This is going to be an honest time

Cassidey: Just as SGA archvists we have done interviews with past e-board members? Would be cool to put seniors in that archive to have their thoughts and feelings be heard.

Claire Gaposchkin‘17: In SGA meeting or something separate?

Alisha Clark ‘18: We would want this to be seperate

Sam: As a senior who is writing two theses, this time is really bad for seniors. We could do this through an online forum.

Alisha Clark ‘18:We were going to do both, people may have last minnute regrets while they were still here about things they could have changed. We are also going to reach out to old Alums We found old books that should probs be in the archives, and they have the same issues that we have now and its sad that things haven’t really changed.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: I am scared that with the forum people may not feel that they can fill it out.

Cassidy : I made a post on a facebook page and I got responses back from Alumns from ’75 got back to me with eboard memories. I would love to see those books

Kyra Sygal ‘17: Forum in person, the only time we would be able to would be after senior work is done, May 6th , then events start the next day for senior week.

Community Forum

Alisha Clark ‘18: Last week we decided as a group we didn’t wanna do big cheese forum, we told Emily that we wanted updates and she responded saying that there werent really any updates during that time, She wants to know what questions were talking about.

Lea Williams ‘20: who is Emily?

Alisha Clark ‘18: Emily is the assistant to KCass, we have to run everything through her.

Lillian Oyen-Usted ‘19: I have been a three semester note taker for cheese forum. We gather questions as a rep-co, we formulate questions that are going around campus. For admissions? Counseling center being more diverse, having more hours, being accessible? Brecon water foundation? Polema? Park and health center construction? Campaign?

Lydia Sanchez ‘18: Some of the next questions will be answered with upcoming board of trustees meeting. Things will be announced. Need blind. We will not be going at need blind. We cannot afford it.

Lillian Oyen-Usted ‘19: I was just talking about questions that have been asked in the past?

Alisha Clark ‘18: What exactly if anything can we ask them? Are there any updates?These questions can be answered at the Board Meeting, we need to be asking other questions that people can ask.

Lydia Sanchez ‘18: The health center they are working on it. $10 million Blueprints have been approved. Release final budget in a few weeks. Like how many people they will be hiring Park has been a discussion since Fall 2015. Planning and wanna be under budget. Park of this has to do with the Campaign. They will update us on things like new bathrooms in merion.

Claire Gaposchkin ‘17: I am not sure what the medium would be for discussion with admin? So since we’re not on the same page with say general projects & what they are working on might be a good place to start with this kind of thing. They could introduce themselves and things they are aiding with. Some questions are being addressed. Getting everyone on the same page.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I will tell you guys of any p=big updates coming from the Board of Trustees meeting.

Jessica Breet ‘18: Another idea would be to put out a survey? Maybe put in questions for admin because as a whole they seem pretty frightinging if you don’t know how it works. ?

Kyra Sygal ‘17: I agree with what everyone has been saying. But just to update on construction. Facilities meet with resco and dorm presidents. I will let you know somethings that will be updated. Construction in park will begin on june 2017 and end fall 2018. Nosiest park will be happening over the summer. Merion will be getting new carpets ,light, & bathrooms this summer. Then in batten Summer 2018 Batten will be renovated. Feel free to reach out to dorm presidents and res-co heads if you have questions or want something communicated.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Administrators wanna know things 3 weeks in advance. So right now we are on thin ice. They like to know what we are talking about. Alisha said that this is what the student body wants. I will pass it around on facebook please encourage people to put questions on the forum. In the meantime, I can email her and ask for a recap of projects that they have been working on.

Lydia Sanchez ‘18: I could recap

Alisha Clark ‘18: Is that all about Big Cheese, Sam want to take it away?

Sam Heyrich ‘17: President of SAAC, this past week was DIII week. One of the themes we decided to focus on student athlete & community relations.This was kind of sparked by Plenary and discussions around that and so we wanted to open a discussion here regarding student athlete relationships here at Bryn Mawr. Earlier held open forum discussion here in the Campus Center trying to address underlying athletic department & how student athlete are linked to confederate flag issue and the way that plays out. The issue was not properly handled and there are a lot of underlying tensions, so we wanted to open a dialogue about this.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I remember when I was a first year, that happened within the first two weeks of being a student. I am a person who is not easily offended by things. At the same time, didn’t wanna shape me me as a student. But it was difficult to see how Bryn Mawr responded, when they did respond it was really empty, like they didn’t care and I felt betrayed and not welcomed. I was intrigued by the way the honor board played out for athletes. No how dept handled issues pertaining to it.

Sam Heyrich ‘17: I am not defending in any part but athletes do not receive any special treatment, especially in regards to the honor code. Athlete’s at Haverford in comparison to BMC is interesting. Stressing the fact that student athletes are not extended special rights.

Alisha Clark ‘18; was this before or after they received their awards?

Lillian Oyen-Usted ‘19: I am a student athlete and I was not here during the issue when I found out I was horrified that it was student athlete. How it was never talked about? Didn’t find out about it until second semester? In regards to awards I brought that up to my coach personally. It turns out that award it isn’t awarded through athletic department, it’s a memorial award given to seniors on rowing team. Sam Heyrich ‘17: These two happened to be seniors on rowing team. Since then, head has been profusely apologetic, especially Kathy

Jessica Breet ‘18: Department of athletics to issue apology.

Sam Heyrich ‘17: I can advocate for this but Don’t think they will be open.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I think that would heal a lot of people. From my position I think that could provide closure. People are always talking about the way that they have never received an apology. No matter what it is essential to treat people with kindness even if we don’t agree.

Jessica Breet ‘18: What if it came from SAAC, not the athletics department?

Sam Heyrich ‘17: I don’t think it’s SAAC’s responsibility/current students have nothing to do with the administrative handling. I feel horrible that current students have to bear the burden, it wouldn’t mean much for these students to apologize for something that the adults did.

Jessica: If they are unwilling to apologize then maybe a public statement of support from SAAC?

Alisha Clark ‘18: Why won’t cathy propose an apology?

Sam Heyrich ‘17: I don’t want to speak on her behalf but I think that they see it as something that has passed, and that it is time to move forward. This year we have made strides in our attempts to fix things, we made a Diversity and inclusion statement that took two years to create and all athletes signed it. We just created a new position on the SAAC e-Board

Lillian Oyen-Usted ‘19: I want to make a point that the comment that was made at Plenary is not representative of majority of athletes, that is not how most athletes feel.We are creating a head of diversity position on our E-Board.. Currently we have a diversity and inclusion committee run by Anushka Robinson. Committee head position → e-board position. Tasked with/focused on the daily tasks and large scale things as well to fix community relationships by working with pensby center the department & AMO groups. We want to hold events within athletics as well as respond to things like this. We don’t want all these responsibilities to fall on one person but we want to show that diversity is priority to all of us.

Claire Gaposchkin‘17: It is very nice that this forum exists. SGA should be an open forum of communication. Line of communication is nice. Being clear about saying this is what happened is helpful. Saying this is what the department did. It’s easy to be confused by all of the difficulties in discussions like this. It’s really helpful for people to understand each other.

Jessica Breet ‘18: Everything SAAC is moving to sounds good.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I agree too, but I am definitely hoping to see an apology. We want all the athletes to be there because we want to show us as a community. Do everyone some healing. Please partake in rally. I think this would help people too.

Sam Heyrich ‘17: If you would like to continue convo privately, please send me an email at any point.

Trivia Time

Apparently there are actually 4 people buried in the Cloisters

Question: What was the original Gateway Building’s purpose?

Answer: Bookstore, point goes to Cassidy Gruber, Purple team. Alisha Clark ‘18: is everyone okay with missing next week for Easter Sunday, NO MEETING NEXT SUNDAY. Last meeting will be the following weekend, the SGA Rally.

During this meeting we continued using the new meeting structure and it still moved smoothly. There were many announcements and upcoming events shared. RepCo made a request for volunteers for room draw as well as sharing information about the room draw events for Multiple Occupancy and Hall Group coming up this Wednesday. There is an event for admitted and prospective students this Thursday that is a great time to introduce them to Bryn Mawr and SGA. Be on a look out for all of the events created by SAAC happening around campus for Division III week this upcoming week. We also had a discussion about the Big Cheese Forum (an event where people from various parts of the administration come to a meeting and students are able to ask them questions and share ideas). We decided that it would not be beneficial to have it this late in the semester but we are going to ask the “Cheeses” from last semester’s forum to report back via videos and take the energy to better plan next Big Cheese. During the community forum there was a proposal to incorporate the structure of deliberative forums into SGA when we have discussions. The RepCo is excited to explore the ways that we can incorporate this. And finally the Red Team won the trivia question giving them two points total!

Announcements

Bridget Murray ‘17 and Kyra Sygal ‘17: We still need people to volunteer for room draw for the sophomore room draw! If you want to volunteer or if you have any questions you can email resco@brynmawr.edu

Events

Bridget Murray ‘17 and Kyra Sygal ‘17: Room draw’s begin this week, Hall group on Wednesday at 7 and Multiple Occupancy on Wednesday at 8.

Emma Porter ‘17: There is a prospective and admitted students event on Thursday the 6th at 6:30pm in the campus center, we want SGA people represented there. It will be a great time to mingle with admitted students and talk about your role in SGA. Email us if you have any questions

Samantha Hyrich ‘18: Tomorrow is the beginning of division three week,there are a number of events throughout the week. Monday: It’s on us during the day in the campus center. At night there will be a hot topic about student athletes in the community at 7:30pm in the Campus Center. Tuesday: Tennis match. Diversity and Inclusion statement will be revealed at 7:30 in the campus center. Wednesday: Body positive photos will be displayed in the campus center. At 8pm there will be a screening of female athletes on screen in the Campus Center. Friday: There will be a kickball tournament in the gym at noon. Sunday: Lacrosse v franklin and marshall at noon and then the sga meeting at night

Big Cheese Forum

Alisha Clark ‘18: Do you guys want to see another big cheese? Do you feel like it’s necessary?

We voted and only two people said that they wanted to have one this semester and so we decided to discuss why

Jasmine Rangel ‘17: What do we hope to achieve with this big cheese forum?

Alisha Clark ‘18: Can the people who want Big Cheese to happen tell us why they think it is important.

Cassidy Gruber Baruth ‘19: In general it’s a really useful event for people who do not generally come to SGA there is more of a turnout and anything that encourages student involvement especially now because we had problems with plenary so anything that involves students voices is important.

Lea Williams ‘20: More transparency between the administration and the student body has been a problem and so i think that would be helpful to increase this.

Kyra Sagal ‘17: I think if we were going to have one this late in the year we would need to have the goals for it very clearly stated, like is this going to be something that is going to happen next year, also i feel like we always have the same people and talk about the same things so would this be a continuation of that?

Alisha Clark ‘18: I agree I wish it wasn’t so late in the year but I have a lot of changes we would like to make if we did have it. I recently went to a conference and saw a panel type discussion led by Juniata College and it included getting to know the people at a more personal level before delving into questions to increase trust. I want to have a speed dating type thing with the cheeses so that you can have a more genuine conversation instead of a roast. Because they’re humans too and we have a lot to change but being harsh isn’t beneficial. That’s what I was going to talk about if you thought it was going to be a good idea.

Emma Porter ‘17: I was thinking that it would be really good to have some feedback from the cheeses from last semester to see if they have followed through on what they were saying that they were going to work on.

Alisha Clark ‘18: So inviting the people from last semester to come back?

Claire Romaine ‘17: I feel it would be a better use of the effort on SGA’s part to put more energy into next semesters but maybe inviting back the people would be a good idea.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I like that idea I think it would be a good way to get experience while also planning for the next Big Cheese.

Juhi Aggarwal ‘18: I don’t think that if we do this kind we don’t need it to all be in one day, the people can come as they have time to SGA meetings to report back.

Emma Porter ‘17: I have a comment, my only concern is that we would have to designate a time for them to come and then go because having this be a student only space is important so having it all at once may be important

Emma Levin ‘17: I also agree with Emma but also if we aren’t able to get everyone at once I do like Juhi’s idea

Ananya Kumar ‘18: My only concern is that it would take more time on every SGA meeting and its April so its getting closer to finals and we all have a lot of work to get done.

Alisha Clark ‘18: It would be implemented in the normal time frame of meetings, it wouldn’t be in addition to it.

Ananya Kumar ‘18: I think that having it all at once would be better for people’s schedules.

Cassidy Gruber Baruth ‘19: I am not against the idea of having people come in every week but I think that having the space for this communication is important and if it was one person at a time it might feel more like grilling that person. We could format it so that they present and then there is space for a few questions.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Yeah i don’t want them to feel like were attacking them because that’s not helpful for things that we want to change but we definitely need something solid because I need to tell them soon.

Swati Shastry ‘18: I feel like only RepCo shows up to the forum and that’s not super helpful because that’s not the idea of Big Cheese and so I don’t know how they are getting info if RepCo isn’t giving it to them.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I could reach out and maybe they could make fun little videos about what they presented and the things that they’ve done on that since then. I don’t want to invite administration into this space because this is our designated time, but maybe if we had a quick video like two minutes each week from someone that we can show and then if you have questions we can write them up and send them to the Cheeses. We will get the updates, do big cheese in a way, and still keep our space.

Kyra Sagal ‘17: I think that’s a good idea they can also just send emails, I think if you wanna get it to the rest of the community maybe not using the term “Big Cheese” because other people may not know what it is and ignore that email.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Thank you, so we’re not going to do the big cheese this semester, is that okay?

Everyone gave thumbs up

Let’s revisit!

The Erdman party didn’t happen because they didn’t end up getting enough bouncers.

Community forum

Jasmine Rangel ‘17: I just wanted to talk about this thing that 20 students were involved in on Friday about deliberative forums as a part of someone’s thesis. So we had a deliberative forum that was structured and talking about the health center. I kinda wanted to talk to you all about it so that we can consider using it in the future as a way to structure forums at SGA meetings because there aren’t concrete structures for those discussions now. So beforehand small amounts of info are given by students anonymously. So instead of everyone sharing their feelings within that space you read the info and are in the same place about the issues.Then there is a panel of administration there so that you can talk to them about any questions you have. Then you talk in smaller groups with moderators and here you can share how you felt: What resonated? What you found surprising? In general getting footing on what the issues are. Then you get together as a whole group and decide on things. So that is the first part and then the second part is actually creating resolutions that you can present on how you want to see it changed.

Okay so do you find that technique valuable to what we do here at SGA and around the campus?Claire Romaine ‘17 I think that is a really good idea to have a concrete goal that we are working to. I just wonder what kind of panels there would be?

Jasmine Rangel ‘17: There wasn’t much of a panel on friday but looking forward I think there would be people who would be able to answer the questions best and they wouldn’t be there for the whole time only that segment.

Emma Porter ‘17: How do you see this incorporated into SGA?

Jasmine Rangel ‘17: When we break into smaller groups and talk about issues. The panel could be administration or students so that things get resolved instead of just talking about feelings the whole time.

Alisha Clark ‘18: I love this and would love to see it implemented.

Priyanka Dutta ‘17: I was thinking that it would go really well with the Big Cheese Forum, especially having the anonymous comments ahead of time.

Jasmine Rangel ‘17: I was also thinking about it for Big Cheese because it is only a small group talking to one person so if there is a panel lots of voices can be heard on both end.

Swati Shastry ‘18: Something the senior who was conducting this research mentioned was doing this for Plenary resolutions so that we don’t have the first discussion of the resolutions at plenary and people can actually think of ways to improve the resolutions based on feedback while they are being written and revised.

Aly Robins ‘17: So this would be before plenary? I think that sounds wonderful but people could have talked about it before at SGA meetings in the past and didn’t show up so would they now? But more of these discussions need to happen and would be great.

During this meeting we tried out a slightly modified structure. The new E-Board introduced themselves and briefly talked about some goals for their term.The new names of the agenda points were discussed as well as the new aspects of the meeting such as separating out upcoming events from announcements and the new trivia section that involves a run competition among the Representative Council. Announcements and Upcoming Events were shared and can be accessed easily in the SGA newsletter also attached in this email. Following these announcements there was a discussion about the Spring Plenary. The meeting broke up into five smaller groups and discussed What they think went well/badly and what they think could be improved. There were many very exciting ideas that came out of these discussions that will hopefully be able to be utilized for the next Plenary. Finally there was the trivia question and the red team won the point!

Introductions

Alisha Clark ‘18: My name is Alisha for anyone who doesn’t know me. I am your new SGA president. And I am really excited to take on this position. I am really friendly after a cup of coffee so if you’re talking to me and I seem dead it’s cause I haven’t had my coffee. She loves coffee and particularly Starbucks. The best way to contact her is through email or texting, she doesn’t want people to be to overly formal when reaching out She’s a cancer (a sensitive creature in her natural habitat) goes to sleep at 10:30 latest and likes to reflect at the end of the day

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: Introducing herself as the new SGA Vice President. She wants to work on improving the accountability of the appointed committees and improving the appointments process in general.

Swati Shastry ‘18: Introducing herself as the Head of the Honor Board. She wants to work on making meetings better by incorporating everyone in some way.

Delia Landers ‘19: Introducing herself as the SGA Secretary. She wants to work on making meetings more productive and enjoyable

Anna Huang ‘19: Introducing herself as the SGA Treasurer. She wants to focus on making the bylaws about the budget better and improving the way that the SFC works to make it more effective.

Alisha Clark ‘18: What she wants to accomplish is the platform that we ran on. Making sure that incoming students know about plenary and SGA and know that they are an integral part of being a Bryn Mawr student. We want to make plenary as enjoyable as possible, to make it a party. We want to create a good healthy dialogue within the community.

Meeting structure discussion

Alisha Clark ’18: We want to discuss the ways that meetings will be run for the rest of this year and what should we do for the upcoming year.

Delia Landers ’19: I’m just going to give a brief description of each:

Roll Call

Checking in to see who in the Representative Council is present.

E-Board Introductions

The new 2017-2018 Executive Board will introduce themselves to the community again!

Meeting Structure Discussion

The new E-Board will be discussing the ways that the meetings will be run and other fun new aspects of the weekly meetings and seeing what the community would like to see.

Announcements:

RepCo Announcements

This was previously classified as New Business. During this time any member of the Representative council may feel free to make an announcement.

General Announcements

Announcements may be made during this time from any member of the Bryn Mawr community.

Upcoming events

This time will be used to discuss and publicize upcoming events.

Plenary Recap Discussion

We will be using this time to have reflections and discussions on the 2017 Spring Plenary and looking forward to future Plenaries.

Let’s Revisit!!

This was previously known as Old Business and is a time for folks to bring up a topic previously discussed at a weekly meeting.

Community Forum

This was previously know as Your Two Cents, this is a time when anyone in the Undergraduate community can come forward to create a discussion, ask for a straw poll or vote, and engage with SGA.

Trivia Time!!

This is a new edition to the weekly meetings that will be a fun way to have a little competition. Come to the discussion on meeting structure to find out how this will work!

So I’ll just explain the ways that the Trivia will work. So I have divided the Representative Council into five teams that are based on the 5 class colors. So I am going to email each of you and let you know what team you’re on! Every week we are going to have a different trivia question and who ever answers it first gains a point for their team. Whichever team has the most points at the end of the semester wins a prize!

Alisha Clark ‘18: The prize will be a Wawa gift card and don’t worry your SGA dues are not going to go

Jessica Breet ‘18: I am going to be honest I didn’t know what the old and new business meant before

Aly Robins ‘17: If I am not a member of repco may I still answer the trivia question?

Delia Landers ‘19: Yes but the point won’t go to any of the teams?

Aly Robins ‘17: So can I not win the prize? What if I answer the most amount of questions?

Delia Landers ‘19: If you answer more questions on your own that the teams do we will definitely get you Wawa.

Alisha Clark ‘18: We only have a few weeks left and so we are trying to have fun in these meetings and see how things work out and we can re-discuss the things we need to at the end

Room hunting: When you’re going around checking out dorms, rooms, and common spaces, remember that people live there! Always knock first, be polite, respect residents’ privacy & honor quiet hours and door signs.

We are in need of some volunteers for Room Draw! We need up to three more people for Sophomore draw on Thursday 4/13 from 8:45-10pm. Any current soph, junior, or senior can do it–we’ll tell you all you need to know, and you’ll get a free t-shirt!

Anna Huang ‘19: Because the New York Times is raising it’s prices from $0.70 to $1.00 we are going to figure out how many copies we really need and start ordering less to be put in the dining halls. We might send around a survey to see who reads the paper everyday, and if they use the physical copy because we also subscribe to the online copy.

Aly Robins ‘17: When would this come into effect?

Anna Huang ‘19: Next semester.

Jasmine Rangel ‘17: May I make a suggestion, look and see how many are left over each day to see how many are used.

Anna Huang ‘19: I am actually already looking into the statistical data and I will use that to decide.

Emma Porter ‘17: Does the digital copy have the crossword?

Aly Robins ‘17: I don’t think so, I think that is a different subscription

Anna Huang ‘19: Yeah I’m not sure I don’t actually read it.

Nanda Bhushan ‘19: The elections round is opening up tomorrow for the emergency elections for Appointments Committee members. Send your nominations to the Elections heads.. The appointments round will take place in April after these positions have been filled.

Also just going over the 4 resolutions that we were not able to present at Plenary and reminding people that we will be bringing these up again.

Jessica Breet ‘18:

This Saturday is Erdman’s first dorm party in many years and we still need bouncers for the event, please, please help me. The theme is dungeon party which you can interpret however you want. Please let me know if you want to be bouncers or servers by Tuesday!

Jasmine Rangel ‘17: Is it a one floor or a two-floor party?

Jessica Breet ‘18: the idea is for it to be a two-floor party with two little parties happening on each floor.

Bridget Murray ‘17: This isn’t a question this is me volunteering to help.

Jessica Breet ’18: Awe thank you Bridget Murray class of 2017!!

Upcoming events

Hannah Henderson Charnow ‘17, Priyanka Dutta ‘17, and Connie Lam ‘18: The senior and junior class presidents are hosting a pre-show to the battle of the bands this coming Friday. They brought a musical guest, Raina Sokotov-Gonzalez who is a singer songwriter from Brooklyn. This will be at 7pm in the campus center on Friday. There will be snacks, please click going to the Facebook event. The event is open to everybody!

Jessica Breet ‘18: Where is this?

Hannah Henderson-Charnow ‘17: It is in the campus center

Jessica Breet ‘18: So what you’re saying is on Friday people can come and watch the band and then on Saturday they will come to the party in Erdman.

HHC: Yes everyone will support each other, you come to our event and we will come to yours!

Bridget Murray ‘17 and Kyra Sagal ‘17: Mock Room Draw will be this Thursday (3/30) at 8:30 pm in Dalton 300. We’ll be going through the steps of multiple occupancy/hall group draws, dorm draw, and room selection, so if you’ve never been through Room Draw before (or have but still don’t understand it) this can answer your questions

Are you interested in being a DP next year? Curious about what the position entails? Next Sunday (4/2) before SGA, ResCo will be hosting a Dorm President Mixer from 6-7pm in the Campus Center main lounge. You can hear more about individual experiences from current DPs and the ResCo heads (both former DPs as well) and connect to other students interested in running. Plus, ResLife will be providing food from Campus Corner!

Lillian Oyen Usted: Saturday at 1 there is the lacrosse pink game and all proceeds go to benefit breast cancer research at Bryn Mawr Hospital.

Hannah Rifkin: General announcement about Passover

So if you eat kosher or if you eat halal but would be open to eating kosher. There is food in the kosher kitchen for all of the 8 days of Passover as well as a seder dinner. So if you are planning on coming to the kitchen please contact me if you would like to have something specific, dining services has been working with us. You can email me at hrifkin@brynmawr.edu.

Plenary Recap Discussion

Alisha Clark ‘18: I wanted to save a lot of time for this. I want to use this time for self reflection. This is one of my core values, I like to reflect on times and think how can I do better next time. Plenary is not just for the E Board it is for the entire community and so we should all self reflect on it.

Breaking up into small group discussions:

Alisha Clark ‘18: I hope that that was good for everyone! Does anyone want to share? Did anything tickle your fancy?

Gabrielle Smith ’17: Making plenary required because the honor code is required and no one questions that. Who benefits from Plenary? Like clubs. Maybe you should get club funding docked. A sheet that you sign when you’re taking self scheduled exams saying this process has some to you through SGA, Plenary is on this date and you better attend.

Claire Romaine ‘18: We talked about counting and how electronic counting and how improvements are needed for that. There were lots of questions and comments on the mics that should have been brought up at SGA meetings previously and how there needs to be more of a knowledge that these are discussed at SGA meetings leading up.

Aly Robins ‘17: I want to second everything that they both said. Cause as a club leader I know that I wonder why people are not at Plenary, do they want to be part of it?? We talked about counting and we talked about a clicker system that Delia brought up and I brought up the idea of swiping in with our one cards the way that thrive does so we know what quorum is without counting.

Maybe having a way to discern whether a question was just asked or is in the resolution if there was a way to say let’s move on from this because it was previously answered or is in the resolution itself .

Emma Porter ‘17: Okay first, wow technology!! And Gabby you brought up the clubs. And we came up with a similar idea. For sga meetings in general the bulk of repco is the dorm presidents and in order to increase the perspectives that are brought to SGA meetings and to increase the size of the council we were hoping to encourage club reps from every club to come out because it is where the budget is coming form and without these meetings you wouldn’t have that club and obviously you care about that group of people.

Lillian Oyen-Usted ‘19: Is there a way to do incentives with residential spaces to give increases for the dorms that get the most people at Plenary.

Alisha Clark ‘18: That is a great idea and when we have office hours in the upcoming weeks we will reach out to you and ask you to come visit to talk about this idea and we will have to go through our Treasurer to work it out. It’s probably possible.

Claire Gopotchkin ‘17 : Something that came up a few times was having a very solid structure in place for the entirety of plenary. Which inlcudes counting and streamlining the volunteer process and the incretion of tabling and making Roberts’ rules more understood so that we do not waste time on unnecessary things. Making sure Plenary runs much more smoothly so we do not waste time on things.

Bridget Murray ‘17:Something that our group brought up was making the languages not as bulky and the effect that Roberts rules would have on spending more time actually voting things rather than not understanding what we are voting on.

Alisha Clark ‘18: Does anyone know what Robert’s Rules of Order is?? Who’s Robert?? Yes there is an actual reading and thing but at the same time it silences a lot of voices because a lot of people do not understand what is happening and so what they say is not valid after that. Like at Plenary when someone immediately called the vote, I was saying to my group “well you’re silencing voices. Claire said “why don’t people just come to SGA meetings if they have all of those questions” And yes we are going to work on that we want to make the meetings more inclusive so that people feel comfortable coming and this could come from us asking people to come to meetings. So next year if they want to know they can come to SGA meetings. Hopefully spreading more awareness of SGA would be helpful for me.

Aly Robins ‘17: This came up in our group, why 7 instead of 6 for the SGA meetings? Which I say because many people have film classes during this time?

Claire Romaine ‘17: I think part of the reason is because yes dining hall workers can’t be there immediately but they are able to get there within an hour. Sometimes during daytime plenary you get practical closing of the dining halls.

Alisha Clark ‘18:What i am thinking about because we had so many resolutions tabled.I need to see which resolutions are being brought back for next semester and depending on how many we get we may end up pushing the Plenary back to the day time instead of night.Because yes I was dying myself because I’m an early bird. But I will bring that up when we get closer and we can discuss it.

Gabrielle Smith ‘17: What if there was daytime and nighttime plenary and the resolutions will be split up people can just come for the resolutions that they care about?

Alisha Clark ‘18: I was thinking about having breaks scheduled into plenary if it is to long. So that people can get fresh air and get food and then people can come who were at work during these breaks, every couple of resolutions.

Annie Belgum ‘18: If we have ideas about plenary and how to improve it what would be the best way to improve it?

Alisha Clark ‘18: Me

Annie Belgam ‘18: Even if they are big things?

Alisha Clark ‘18: Yes.

Alisha Clark ‘18: You can talk to me every time you see me or email me whenever, you don’t have to be formal in your email to me. We can figure out a time or place to talk. You can also talk to anyone on the E-board and we have weekly meetings and a groupchat so talking to any of us is talking to all of us. I will email back and we can talk about this at a scheduled time and place.

Jessica Breet ‘18: So one of the things we talked about would be cutting back on resolutions especially ones that would be able to be decided in weekly SGA meetings. Operationally the repco may decide on some things within themselves instead of having to present changes to the constitution.